TRAIN ONSEN Travel Journals to Hot Springs in Japan

It's the beginning of December, and today's day trip hot spring is Sanogawa-onsen. It's located in Nanbu Town, Yamanashi Prefecture, close to the border with Shizuoka Prefecture. Nishi-san and Kita-san have just arrived at Sanogawa-onsen Ryokan, about a 30-minute walk from JR Toshima Station.

Wow, autumn leaves! They're dazzling, you know.

Exactly. There are still autumn leaves even in December. I thought it would be earlier since it's Yamanashi.

Maybe the hot springs make it so warm that the leaves change color later.

That can't be true... No, maybe it is?

Putting the truth about the autumn leaves aside, they headed inside the building. The souvenir shop and break room were in front, and the bathing room was on the left.

Wow, the bathtub is bigger than I thought.

Mmm, what a strong sulfur smell. This is great...

There are two baths. Um, one is "Drinkable flowing from the source" and the other one is "Heated flowing from the source". So that means...

In short, both are flowing from the source, and this one is not heated.

Nishi-san and Kita-san got into the unheated bathtub.

It's lukewarm.

Exactly. But it's nice water. Wait, does this have fine bubbles in it? That's nice.

Then, about the heated one is... Yes, it's just right. Temperature-wise, this one is the best.

Next they went out to the open-air bath.

That looks like a pretty nice open-air bath, you know.

This is also divided into heated and unheated. So, let's start with the unheated one.

Without heated is... Oh, no, it's fine in the summer, but it's too lukewarm at this time of year.

You could say that. And, the open-air bath weakens the sulfur smell, that is a bit disappointing.

So Nishi-san seemed to like the unheated indoor bath, while Kita-san liked the heated open-air bath. After thoroughly enjoying the waters of Sanogawa-onsen, they took a break after the bath.

It was a nice bath. Especially since it's been a while since I've been to a hot spring with such a strong sulfur smell.

And the open-air bath was surprisingly good. It was a minor hot spring so I didn't have high expectations, but it was actually pretty good, you know.

The scenery in this garden is also pretty nice. There is a pond and the leaves are changing color.

Oh, you can go outside from there! How about having beer to cool off?

Well, not a bad idea.

So, Nishi-san and Kita-san had bought some canned beer and head out to the terrace. Sipping beer while admiring the early winter scenery surrounding the pond was the perfect combination for cooling off after a bath. The cool, dry breeze that rustles the trees seemed to be a sign that full-blown winter was just around the corner.

(December 2023)