We visited Yunosato Onsen Kyodo Yokujyo "Dankyu buro" in Obamachō Unzen, Unzen, Nagasaki. According to the manager, this is the oldest bathhouse in Unzen Onsen.

The manager Hironori kindly welcomed us at the reception. He has been working here for 25 years.

The dressing room is well maintained and clean. There are lockers to keep your valuables safe. However, some doors cannot be locked because they are aged and don’t work as expected.

There is a photogenic round-shaped bathtub at the centre of the bathroom. The bath is filled with cloudy hot spring water which is not recycled, and you can smell the sulphur fragrance when you get in the room. “Dankyu” is an uncommon word even for Japanese, actually we didn’t know this word, so we asked it. It means Chinese onion called “Rakkyo” in Japanese. In the past, a cask used for making rakkyo pickles was used as a bathtub in this onsen, because the cask was big enough to fit several bathers at a time. Although the cask is not used now, the round-shape bathtub imitates that.

Dankyu Buro supplies high acidic hot spring whose pH value is 2.3. Local bathers say bathing at this bath can ease neuralgia and skin diseases. Although the original hot spring temperature is high, the water is not recycled and not mixed with any other water. The bath temperature is adjusted by the amount of new water flowing into the bath.

Kenichi comes to Dankyu Buro every morning after his night-shift job. He said the touch of water is really soft although it is high acidic.

According to Hironori, Yunosato Onsen Kyodo Yokujyo has more than 100 years of history, and the building was renovated some years ago, and some facilities have not been renovated for several decades. Also, he said the bath was really stinky when the cask was used as a bathtub. The smell of mixing rakkyo pickles and sulphur hot spring would be really disgusting; however, we could not help smelling it if we had a chance. 

MAP

INFORMATION

Name: Yunosato Onsen Kyodo Yokujyo

Address: 303-1 Obamachō Unzen, Unzen, Nagasaki

Tel: 080-5286-2576

Access (Car): 1 hour 15 min from the centre of Nagasaki City. 1 hour 19 min from the Nagasaki airport

Parking Lot: 4

Opening Hours: Daily 09:00 - 23:00

Price: JPY 200