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With a manager of the union, Ryuichi Shimohara, in front of the bathhouse

We visited Kyomachi Onsen “Okamatsu Onsen” in Okamatsu, Ebino, Miyazaki. This is a public bathhouse shared among the locals in the south Okamatsu district, and now maintained by a union consisting of 15 local families though originally it was 22.

He is a manager of the union Ryuichi. He says Okamatsu Onsen opened in 1924, the grandparents of Ryuichi noticed that a certain part of the ground surface is warm while cultivating, and they asked other local families to drill the ground to discover a hot spring source, then successfully the hot spring was found there.

In principle, this onsen is unstaffed. You can find a clear box in the dressing room, put the entrance fee into the box to use a bathroom.

In the dressing room, there is a wood shelf to put your clothes. If you have valuables, we recommend you to leave them in your car.

This is the bathroom. A yellow bathtub is placed at the centre of the room, the design (colour, tiles and rounded corners) has not been changed since Okamatsu Onsen opened. The water is warm and good for a long soak, and can warm your body up thoroughly.

The water is clear and transparent, although most of hot springs supply brown coloured water in the Kyomachi Onsen area. Frequent bathers say it treats neuralgia.

He is a frequent bather Hisashi, he regularly comes to Okamatsu Onsen after the farm work in the morning, and goes back to the work, then comes back here after the afternoon work as well. If possible, we really want to take an onsen bath at intervals of the work, it’s awesome!

You can see vast rice paddy field expanding near Okamatsu Onsen. According to Ryuichi, most of the visitors are farmers and they come here for bathing after the farm work, so most of them regularly comes at the same time every day. Okamatsu Onsen is so closely connected with the daily life of the local farmers.