YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
How to Bathe — Yamada Onsen
The water at Yamada Onsen runs on the hot side; that is its character. Here is the way our staff recommend bathing, so that you can enjoy that heat to the full.
Introduction
The water at Yamada Onsen runs on the hot side; that is its character. The heat is part of what makes this hot spring good, but guests who come for the first time are sometimes taken aback and get out after a few minutes — and so never quite taste what the bath has to offer.
So our staff, who bathe here day in and day out, would like to pass on the way to get the most out of the hot water at Yamada Onsen.
These are the small knacks of bathing that we notice as staff, gathered here — modestly — so that the water feels as good to you as it can.
About Yamada Onsen
Yamada Onsen is said to have been found in the Oei era (1394–1427), and mountain ascetics chose it as a place for their training — a hot spring with a long lineage. The air over Matsukawa Gorge holds a clear kind of quiet, and being here brings a deep ease, as though you had set yourself down inside nature itself.
Our water is kept on the hot side, and it is that heat which warms you right through to the core.
Recommended Steps
01
Before you get into the water, wash slowly and let yourself settle. The hot spring feels far better for it.
02
Yunohana — mineral flakes — float softly on the surface, and even the sight of them settles you. It may feel a little hot at first, but within seconds the body takes to it. The stir that runs through you once you are used to hot water is a habit worth forming.
Sink slowly up to the shoulders and your breathing deepens on its own, and the stiffness comes out of you.
03
There are chairs in the bathroom where you can sit. Come out of the water slowly, and take a breath there first.
Open the window and the clear air of Matsukawa Gorge drifts in, touching a body the hot spring has already warmed. That gap between the water and the outside air is a freshness of its own, and only water this hot can give it to you.
And this pause is, in fact, the most important part of all.
When the outside air meets a body loosened by heat, a strange lightness comes over you, as though you were floating. The shoulders drop, the breath deepens by itself, and even the head grows quietly ordered.
Warm through, then take the air — those few minutes are exactly what make the next time in the water better still.
04
Once your body has cooled a touch, get into the hot spring again and you will feel a deeper kind of warmth than the first time. This flow — warm through, feel the outside air, warm through again — is one that many of our guests tell us they love.
05
The edge of the bath, a chair, wherever you feel like being — please make yourself comfortable. Spend the time quietly and it begins, naturally, to run slower.
Many guests tell us they looked up to find they had been at it for an hour, or two, far longer than they had meant to.
If the water feels too hot, we keep a yumomi stirring board there, so you can bring the temperature down without watering down what the hot spring holds.
Four Baths
| 1. Private open-air bath | A private open-air bath that overnight guests can use free of charge. Enjoy a hot spring first opened 700 years ago. |
|---|---|
| 2. Oyu | A bathhouse with the feel of its own history. You can choose between hot, slightly hot and lukewarm water. Our recommendation is, of course, the hot one. Free for overnight guests. |
| 3. Takinoyu | Another bathhouse with the feel of its own history. The water here is often too hot, so it is better to add cold water before you get in. |
| 4. Inner bath | The hot spring inside MATSUKAWAKAN. Simple, but free and open to all sorts of ways of using it. Please enjoy it at night and in the morning alike. |
In Closing
The hot spring you can enjoy at MATSUKAWAKAN is a plain one, with no special ornament to it. But there is a reason it has been loved for so long, and we feel that reason every day.
Into hot water, out to rest in the air, back into the water again. The rhythm is strangely comfortable, and you find yourself wanting to repeat it again and again during your stay. Some guests tell us, smiling, “that was my third time today.”
Even for us, who see the same water every day, the wish to get in one more time never quite goes away.
Many guests remember it after they have left, thinking suddenly that they would like to be held by that warmth again — and for those of us who have cared for this hot spring, nothing could make us happier. Please take your time, at whatever pace suits you.
We hope, from the heart, that the hours you spend here are good ones.
Reservation
Take your time with free-flowing hot spring water that runs hot.
About 40 minutes by car from Nagano Station, with a free shuttle available. Booking through the official site is always the best value.