Echigo-Yuzawa Onsen Yama no Yu

Yama no Yu, officially Yumoto Kyodo Yokujo Yama no Yu, is a day-use-only public bathhouse in Yuzawa, Minamiuonuma District, Niigata Prefecture. It is regarded as the oldest public bath in Echigo-Yuzawa and has long served as a place for therapeutic bathing. It stands near the inn where Yasunari Kawabata wrote the novel Snow Country, and Kawabata himself is said to have bathed here. The slope leading up to the bathhouse appears in the novel as Yuzaka, and locals call the bath Yamanbocha.

The water is a simple sulfur spring, colorless and clear, with a faint hydrogen sulfide scent in the bathroom and a smooth feel on the skin. The bath draws on its own source, one of the distinct springs in Yuzawa, and uses the water in a free-flowing (kakenagashi) style. Reported benefits include relief from neuralgia, muscle pain, poor circulation, and chronic digestive complaints.

The bathroom is compact, and the tub fills up with five or six people. Admission is 850 yen for adults and 350 yen for children aged 4 to elementary school. It is open from 10:00 to 21:00 (last entry 20:30) and closed on Tuesdays. There is a parking lot for 10 cars.