Takegawara Onsen

Takegawara Onsen is a municipal public bathhouse in the Motomachi district of Beppu, Oita Prefecture, standing about a ten-minute walk from JR Beppu Station and serving as a symbol of Beppu Onsen. It was established in 1879 (Meiji 12); the name Takegawara, meaning bamboo tiles, is said to derive from the original building's bamboo-thatched roof. The present wooden structure, built in 1938 (Showa 13), is crowned by an ornate karahafu gabled roof and is registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The water is a sodium-calcium-magnesium chloride and bicarbonate spring, with a source temperature of about 54.6 degrees Celsius and a pH of 7.6, making it a mildly alkaline, high-temperature spring. The clear, colorless water has a soft feel on the skin, offering high-quality Beppu source water in the heart of the city.

Inside are gender-separated indoor baths and the famous sand bath (sunayu). The indoor bath costs 300 yen for adults and 100 yen for children, while the sand bath, where visitors don a yukata and lie down to be buried in hot sand shovelled by attendants, costs an additional 1,500 yen. The indoor bath is open 6:30-22:30 and the sand bath 8:00-22:30 (last entry 21:30); the bathhouse is closed on the third Wednesday of each month.