Language:

With the owner Eisuke Ikeda, in front of the reception — With the owner *Eisuke Ikeda*, in front of the reception

We visited Kaigata Onsen "Enoshima Onsen" located in Kaigata, Tarumizu in the Osumi peninsula. To get this onsen, go along with the Sata road and turn to the passage leading the sea. It is situated really close to the seacoast.

After passing the name board, you can find a building with the traditional blue and red curtains at the men and women entrances. We love this attractive design.

The owner Eisuke Ikeda welcomed us with a smile at the reception. He is one of the youngest owner we have ever met. He resigned the job in Tokyo and came back to Kagoshima when he was 35 years old to inherit Enoshima Onsen from his grandfather.

The dressing room is simple, but well maintained and clean. As there are no lockers, you need to keep your valuables by yourself.

The bathroom is nicely designed. The bathtub, floor, and wall are all brown coloured, and the wood gives the room a relaxing feeling. The roof was reformed when Eisuke inherited this onsen because it was almost falling, however, the others including the bathtub are almost the same as when they were build.

Look at this! The hot spring water is gushing out of the faucet. In both men's and women's bath, 60 liters of water is gushing every minute. As this amount is quite unusual even in Japan, many onsen lovers come from far away. Also, that enables the bath water to let out old water from the tub and keep freshness. The water is simple thermal sulphur spring and said to be good for rheumatism and back pain.

Kiichiro (left) who comes to Enoshima Onsen everyday, and Kazunobu (right) who comes at least once a week. They both like the hot spring water of this onsen, and recommended us to take a hot bath and cold bath one after the other in a hot summer day.

This cement bath contains cold water. Fresh cold water is always flowing into this bath as well. As the frequent bathers say, taking a cold bath after having a long soak in a hot bath is really refreshing!

This is the view from Enoshima Onsen. A spectacular view of Sakurajima volcano over the sea. The name "Enoshima" derives from the name of the desolated island in this picture which is located in front of Sakurajima. We hope Enoshima Onsen and this fantastic view will be preserved in the future for the next generation.