Yumura Onsen Yakushiyu

Yakushiyu is a public bathhouse run by the town of Shin-Onsen in Mikata District, Hyogo Prefecture, standing in the middle of the Yumura Onsen resort. Its full name is the Yumura Onsen Tourist Exchange Centre Yakushiyu. It sits about 200 metres north of Arayu, the celebrated source on the bank of the Haruki River where water surfaces at 98C at a rate of 470 litres per minute, and together the two form the heart of the town. Yumura Onsen itself is said to have been opened in 848 by the Tendai priest Jikaku Daishi Ennin, and it is known throughout Japan as the setting of the NHK drama Yumechiyo Nikki. The bathhouse is a two-storey building of timber with some reinforced concrete, roughly 970 square metres in floor area, distinguished by a lookout tower on the tiled roof built in the manner of a Yakushi hall and by the Chinese-style gabled gate at the main entrance.

The baths are fed by a blend of the Arayu and Kabuyu sources, which the town describes as undiluted spring water served free-flowing. It is classified as a sodium bicarbonate, chloride and sulphate spring, hypotonic, neutral and high-temperature. The water is colourless and clear, lathers soap readily and is described as gentle on the skin. It still measures about 90C when it reaches the bathhouse, but no cold water is added. Instead the heat is drawn off in stages, warming the tap water for the showers and taps and feeding the underfloor heating in winter, until the water enters the tubs at around 50C. Nothing is reheated and nothing is recirculated or filtered.

The ground floor holds separate main baths for men and women along with an open-air bath, a sauna and an assisted bath for bathers who need help; the upper floor is a rest room. Admission for visitors from outside the town is 700 yen for adults and 500 yen for children, while Shin-Onsen residents pay 350 and 250 yen. The assisted bath costs 3,000 yen for up to three people for 45 minutes, with a further 500 yen per person beyond that. The bath opens from 08:30 to 21:30, with last entry at 21:00, and closes on the 15th of each month, except when the 15th falls on a Thursday, Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, in which case it stays open. There are 47 parking spaces, free for two hours to those using the bath. The telephone number is 0796-92-1081.