14 Facilities6 Onsen towns
Tamatsukuri's day-use bath, famous for 'beautiful skin' water. A magatama-jewel-shaped building with a cascade bath, open-air tub and 1 m-deep standing bath. Often combined with Izumo Taisha.
The communal bath of Yunotsu, once the shipping port for the World Heritage Iwami Ginzan silver mine. Rated a perfect 'all fives' by the Japan Spa Association, it is 100% free-flowing, and iron-rich mineral deposits coat the tub in thick brown crusts. Next door is 'Shin-yu', a Western-style wooden building from 1919 whose retro café and rooftop terrace are open to bathers. ¥600. The whole street is a preserved historic district.
Shimane's only onsen bathhouse, offering the lakeside Matsue Shinjiko spring for ¥430. Five minutes on foot from Matsue-Shinjiko-Onsen Station on the Ichibata line, easy to drop into after Matsue Castle or the moat cruise. The sodium-calcium sulfate-chloride water holds heat well. No soap or shampoo provided, but a take-along set is sold. Ninety percent of bathers are locals—everyday Matsue at its most authentic.
The landmark of Arifuku, a stair-stepped hamlet of wooden inns tucked into the San'in hills. A 1928 reinforced-concrete bathhouse with Western arched windows, it pours colourless alkaline simple-spring water undiluted into the tub — slippery 'beauty water'. ¥400 with soap and shampoo, open 7:00–22:00 for early soaks. A family bath rents for ¥1,200 an hour, and the tatami rest room upstairs displays pre-war photographs. Cars can't enter the sloping village, which also has the Satsuki-yu and Yayoi-yu public baths for a three-bath circuit.
The founding bath of Yunotsu, the port town that once shipped silver from the World Heritage Iwami Ginzan mine, with a history said to go back 1,300 years. It stands in the preserved townscape district and has a legend of a tanuki healing its wounds here. Two pools: the 'hot' one fed directly by the source and a 'cooler' one that is still around 43°C. The strong sodium-calcium-chloride water, thick with rust-brown mineral flakes, is renowned as a therapeutic spring and can be drunk. Adults ¥450, children ¥200; open 06:00–20:00, irregular closures (closed from 15:00 on the 3rd Monday). No soap and no showers — bathe the old way. Comparing it with the other outside bath, Yakushi-yu (¥500), is the classic routine. About 20 minutes on foot or 5 by bus from JR Yunotsu Station.
A cure-bath founded in the Meiji era, tucked in the hills of Misato, Shimane, up a tributary of the Gō River. The spring bubbles up directly through gaps in the wooden floor of the tub — 'footspring' water that onsen devotees rank among the finest sources in western Japan. The carbonated iron-bicarbonate water is tepid at around 34 °C, faintly yellow-brown, and coats the body in tiny bubbles. There is one small wooden tub each for men and women, no washing area, soap and shampoo are forbidden, and bathing is limited to an hour: this is a place purely for soaking. Afterwards you can warm up in a heated goemon iron-kettle bath. Adults ¥500; open 08:00–18:00 April–October (last entry 17:00) and 08:00–17:00 November–March (last entry 16:00), closed Thursdays. Room rest is available. With the Sankō rail line gone, driving is realistic: about 1 hour from JR Gōtsu Station or 50 minutes from Ōasa IC on the Hamada Expressway, with a narrow mountain road at the end. Not for those wanting facilities, but unforgettable for those who care about the water itself.
About 7 minutes by car from Izumo Enmusubi Airport, Yunokawa Onsen in Hikawa, Izumo, is counted with Kawanaka (Gunma) and Ryūjin (Wakayama) as one of Japan's Three Beauty Springs. Legend says the goddess Yagami-hime soothed her skin here, and the inn Yumoto Yunokawa, founded in 1877, sits at the source. Its sodium-calcium sulfate and chloride water flows straight from the spring without dilution, and the silky bath is famed for leaving skin smooth. Day bathing is 10:00–15:30 (last entry 15:00) for ¥900 per adult and ¥500 per child, free under 3 (day visitors may be turned away when busy). Three private baths can be booked by day guests too – ¥2,500 for 50 minutes plus admission – with reservations from 9 am the day before. Irregular closures, free parking. About 20 minutes on foot from Shōbara Station on the JR San'in Line or 7 minutes from Shinji IC on the San'in Expressway. A perfect soak between Izumo Taisha, Matsue and your flight home.
An inn with Tamatsukuri's largest great bath, Kobe-yudono, open to day visitors. It has two halls, Hinoki-no-yu and Iwa-no-yu, each big enough for 200 bathers and totalling 1,050 square metres, with an open-air bath, jacuzzi and sauna, and the halls switch between men and women evening and morning. Day bathing runs 12:00 to 14:30 (last entry 14:00) at 1,600 yen for adults and 800 yen for elementary pupils, and 18:00 to 21:00 (last entry 20:30) at 2,000 yen and 1,000 yen; pre-school children are free. Bath towels and face towels are lent without charge, and in the evening soft drinks are unlimited in the lounge. The spring is Tamatsukuri's own, brought to 42 degrees with added water, heating and recirculation filtration.
A long-established inn on Tamatsukuri's spa street whose great baths take day visitors. There are two halls, one lit by a skylight, the other looking across a double-height glass wall onto a Japanese garden, and they switch between men and women. Both have a jacuzzi and a sauna, and the women's hall has a shampoo bar. Day bathing is 1,300 yen for adults and 650 yen for elementary pupils (tax included), from 11:30 to 21:00 with last entry at 20:30. A face towel costs 100 yen and a bath towel 200 yen to rent. Four private open-air baths in ceramic, rock, jar and wood are also open to day visitors at 2,200 yen for adults and 1,100 yen for children for 50 minutes, though that water is not onsen. Closing days vary, so calling ahead is advised.
One of the three outer baths of Arifuku Onsen, a spa called the Ikaho of the Sanin coast. Its timber front suits the plain spa street, and the water runs a little cooler than at Gozenyu. The source is 46.2 degrees and the tub sits around 40 to 42. It costs 400 yen from junior high age and 200 yen for elementary pupils, closes on Thursdays, and on Tuesdays, when Gozenyu is closed, it opens from 7:00 in the morning to 10:00 at night.
The coolest of the three outer baths at Arifuku Onsen. The source is 42.5 degrees and the tub sits around 39 to 40, which suits a long, unhurried soak. The bath is shallow and there is no shower, keeping the shape of an old public bath. It costs 400 yen from junior high age and 200 yen for elementary pupils, and closes on Fridays. It stands up a lane of stone steps, easy to reach as part of a walk around the spa street.
The city hotel's bathhouse in the Shinjiko onsen quarter on Lake Shinji. It draws on a natural spring of about 70°C rising from 1,250m - a sodium-calcium sulphate-chloride spring - and the men's bath overlooks the lake. Day bathing is 1,100 yen tax included, with generous hours from 6 in the morning to midnight.
An inn in Yunokawa Onsen, one of Japan's Three Beauty Springs, in Izumo, Shimane, accepting day bathers. Its sodium-calcium sulfate-chloride spring is an alkaline beauty-skin water that leaves skin smooth, and besides the morning bath, day bathing is accepted into the evening.
An all-river-view hotel overlooking the dramatic Go River in Misato, Shimane. Shio Onsen is a sodium bicarbonate-chloride cold mineral spring; its free-flowing (heated) indoor and open-air baths come in Japanese- and Western-themed bath halls. Jet baths, herb baths and a sauna complete the lineup, with day bathing 13:00-19:00 (last entry 18:00). Afterwards, relax at the free drink bar - coffee, soft drinks and ice bars - and a lounge holding some 2,500 books; as a winery hotel, wine tasting (500 yen a glass) is on offer too. Its roots lie in a healing spa legendarily used by an injured fox - a modern inn where esthetic treatments await.