Shichikama Onsen Anrakuso

Anrakuso is a small nine-room hot spring inn in the Shichikama district of Shin-Onsen Town, Mikata District, in northern Hyogo Prefecture, a short drive from the Sea of Japan coast. Shichikama Onsen was discovered in the winter of 1963, when villagers digging a well for everyday water struck a hot spring vein instead. The flow proved so abundant that the community began piping the water to every household, and the founder of Anrakuso, captivated by the spring, opened the inn here that same year.

According to the official spring analysis posted by the inn, the water comes from the Shichikama No. 3 source and is classified as a sodium-calcium sulfate spring (hypotonic, high-temperature). The source measures 51.3 degrees Celsius with a pH of 7.42 and yields roughly 420 liters per minute through mechanically pumped drilling. The water is colorless and clear, with a faint hydrogen sulfide scent and a slight bitter, metallic taste. The bath is served as 100 percent free-flowing source water with no dilution and no reheating, and the spring's strong heat retention has long earned it the local nickname of the onsen that makes a kotatsu unnecessary.

The bathing area consists of a single indoor bath each for men and women, with no open-air bath and no sauna. Bathing hours run from 15:00 to 24:00 and again from 5:00 to 10:00 the next morning. The nine guest rooms are Japanese-style in six- and eight-tatami sizes, and Wi-Fi covers the whole building. Run directly by a wholesaler at Hamasaka fishing port, the inn serves fresh Sea of Japan seafood and Tajima beef, with matsuba snow crab as the winter specialty. Free parking for eight cars is available. There is no day-use bathing plan; the bath is for overnight guests only.