We visited Yamakawa Onsen “Hotaru no Sato Onsen” in Kitazato, Oguni-machi, Aso-gun, Kumamoto, which was drilled in 2002 by six locals including Katsutoshi, and officially opened in 2006. They decided to discover a hot spring to express the appreciation to the elderly.

Katsutoshi was sitting on the reception desk, this day, he was a tiny little bit drunk. Generally, the reception is unstaffed, and only staffed on Saturday and Sunday.

The dressing room is clean. You can use a box to put your clothes, lockers are not available.

This is the bathroom, the water is sulphur spring which is similar to the water in Yamakawa Onsen “Kyodo Yokujyo” nearby. Also, the water contains a lot of deposited minerals.

A large amount of fresh hot spring water always flows out. Sulphur minerals contained in the water colour the stones around the faucet white-yellow.

Katsuroshi (left) and a frequent bather Teizō (right) are bathing. They chat in the bath everyday.

The left side of the window cannot be closed for the time being. Katsutoshi says they are planning to reform the bathroom to enjoy country landscape while soaking in the bath. The landscape would be great.

Hotaru (ホタル) means Firefly in Japanese. As indicated in the name “Hotaru no Sato”, especially in June, you can see a lot of fireflies flying in rice fields. After the reform complete, you can enjoy a bath with watching fireflies. It might be amazing.

MAP

INFORMATION

Name: Hotaru no Sato Onsen

Address: 1534 Kitazato, Oguni-machi, Aso-gun, Kumamoto

Tel: 0967-46-2113

Access (Car): 1 hour 37 min from the centre of Kumamoto city. 1 hour 13 min from the Kumamoto airport

Parking Lot: 15

Opening Hours: Daily 08:00 - 21:00

Closing Days: None

Price: JPY 300