Handa Natural Onsen Maruha Gongitsune no Yu

Located in Heiwa-cho, Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, about one minute from the Handa Chuo Interchange on the Chita Peninsula Toll Road, Handa Natural Onsen Maruha Gongitsune no Yu is a day-use hot spring facility. Its name honors 'Gon, the Little Fox' (Gongitsune), the best-known tale by Handa-born children's author Nankichi Niimi. Operated alongside the famous Maruha Shokudo restaurant known for its jumbo fried shrimp, the facility is a locally beloved super-sento-style day-trip bathhouse.

The spring is a sodium chloride strong salt spring (hypertonic, weakly alkaline, high-temperature spring), drawn from a depth of 1,500 meters with a source temperature of 59.2°C and a pH of around 7.5. Rich in sodium and chloride ions, its total mineral content exceeds 26 grams per kilogram, making it one of the more concentrated salt springs in the region. Only the open-air 'Takitsubo-yu' (waterfall pool bath) is supplied undiluted, source-fed at 44-45°C; the other indoor and outdoor baths are heated, circulated and chlorine-treated.

Alongside a pure Japanese-style indoor bath, the open-air bathing area overlooking a Japanese garden offers a cave bath, reclining bath, seated bath, walking bath, a shower waterfall (utase-yu), and the Takitsubo-yu pool fed by a 3.5-meter waterfall. The facility is open from 10:00 to 22:00 (last entry 21:00) and closed on Mondays (open on public holidays, with the closure shifting to the following Tuesday; open on Mondays from the 26th to the end of each month). Admission is 900 yen for adults and 400 yen for children on weekdays, with free parking for 60 vehicles.