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With the manager Kenichi Yokoyama, in the lounge

We visited Kitsuki-shi "Yamaga Onsen Centre"in Yamagamachi Noharu, Kitsuki, Ōita.

The manager Kenichi welcomed us with a smile at the reception.

The dressing room is very clean. Also, there are lockers to keep your valuables safe.

Look at the water colour. It’s deep. If you touch the water and then touch your face, your skin will tingle with salts contained in the hot spring. The bath on this side is a hot bath and the other side is a tepid bath.

The type is strong chloride spring which contains a huge amount of sodium ions and chloride ions among normal chloride springs. As the original temperature is tepid (31.8°C|89.24°F), it is heated up to the moderate temperature for bathing. Thanks to the sodium chloride, this hot spring has a strong moisturizing effect, and it is said it can ease muscle pain and back pain.

Norimoto (left) came from Kitsuki and Toshio (right) came from Usa, they both are frequent bathers. Toshio said he always comes to Yamaga Onsen Centre when he gets tired.

Kenichi showed us the tank which contains the pure hot spring water just pumped up from the ground.

Look at the colour again. Although they are originally the same, the water colour here is different from the one in the bath. This water is almost transparent and white while the water in the bath is deep brown. As the water contains a rich amount of iron ions as well as chloride ions, Kenichi said, washing pipes is an important but really time-consuming job.

Before Yamaga Onsen Centre was built, there was a cool spring called “Kojio Kósen” (神塩鉱泉 in Japanese) along with the river streaming next to the current building. As the salt was used for a Shinto ritual to pray for God, it is called “Kojio” (神塩 in Japanese meaning Salt of God). Also, at that time, there was a natural open-air bath at the riverside, the locals often bathed there or brought back the water to their home to use it for the private bath.