Tsuboyu Onsen UNESCO World Heritage Hot Spring

Have you heard of Tsuboyu Onsen, the world’s only UNESCO World Heritage site bath? Me neither — not until the day we reached the Yunomine Onsen village on the third day of our Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage.

Never having heard of it didn’t stop me, a self-proclaimed onsen enthusiast, from being immediately fixated on it. So after checking in to our ryokan and having lunch, I went to the vending machine in front of the Yunomine Onsen Public Bath and exchanged two Japanese Yen coins for two Tsuboyu Onsen tickets (it cost 800 yen per person).

Tsuboyu Onsen

The Tsuboyu Onsen booking comes with a set of rules, including a maximum time per booking of 30 minutes. The front manager gave me a paper with a list of rules and asked me to read it. I scanned through the list, nodded, took the number tag and thanked him. None of the rules deterred me, not even the three-hour waiting time.

The next step was to convince Fafa to come with me. He is not the onsen type. Usually, I let him be, but not this time, not for Tsuboyu. So I returned to our ryokan across the road from the public bath.

Funnily enough, Fafa didn’t need any convincing. My excitement about Tsuboyu, the thing I didn’t know existed only an hour earlier, rubbed on him. Also, after many hours of walking along the Kumano Kodo trail, it would be impossible not to be tempted by the prospect of soaking in the remedial warm water.

It was an easy yes.

Next, we request the dinner time to be changed to a bit later at the ryokan’s front desk in anticipation of us being late from the onsen. With the new dinner time sorted, we sneaked out with the ryokan’s towels.

One of the rules of Tsuboyu was to wait in the hut near the onsen cabin once we saw the number before us using the onsen, because If we were late and missed our turn, we would have to go back to the end of the queue.

While waiting in the hut, we chit-chatted with local girls who were studying Tourism. They were here with friends for the weekend. With pleasantries and plenty of selfies exchanged, it was finally time for our turn to experience the Tsuboyu Onsen.

We had to go down the stoned stairs, remove our shoes, hang our queue number in front of the door and enter the wooden cabin.

Tsuboyu Onsen Cabin

The Tsuboyu Onsen cabin is located beside the flowing water of the Yunotani River.

Inside the Tsuboyu cabin, there were a few more steps, a place to wash ourselves and the onsen. The itself was a small watering hole resembling a deep tub — an au naturel bathtub. It could fit two people comfortably or three people snuggly.

It’s filled with hot spring water with white and black pebbles at the bottom of it. The water was hot but not too hot. I preferred hotter, while Fafa colder.

Tsuboyu Onsen Cure Color

It’s widely believed that the water in the onsen has a healing power thanks to the rich minerals it carries. It took a few minutes for me to relax because I couldn’t see the water clearly. Eventually, I managed to let go and completely relaxed — soaking in the magical power of Tsuboyu Onsen.

Another phenomenon of Tsuboyu Onsen was the colour of the water. It’s supposed to change a few times daily. 

I guess the only way to prove it is to do multiple entries at different times of the day. Not sure whether anyone had tried it? It’s a pass for me. FYI, during our time, it was murky dark blue.

Eventually, we got dressed and packed up, all within the given thirty-minute time limit.

Onsen Certified

Oh, one more thing, which might sound like a novelty but pleased me nevertheless, is that we got the Tsuboyu Onsen certificate. It’s now proudly pinned onto my vision board in my room.

Soaking in Tsuboyu Onsen quickly was one of the highlights of our Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage. Even if you are not making the pilgrimage, visiting Tsuboyu, one of the oldest onsens in Japan, and staying in Yunomine village should be one of the things to do on your Japan travel list.

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