Nagano Anan Town
One of the largest spacious baths in Nagano Prefecture and an exquisite silky source spring with a pH above 10
"Anan Onsen Kajika no Yu" is a day-use hot spring facility in Anan Town, Shimoina District, Nagano Prefecture. It sits in a beautiful natural setting with the clear waters of the Kamihara River flowing right in front of it. Its pride and joy are the spacious men’s and women’s large baths, among the biggest in Nagano Prefecture, and an open-air bath with a sweeping view of the Kamihara Ohashi Bridge. The water is an alkaline simple hot spring with a remarkable pH of over 10. The moment you step into it, the thick, silky texture gently envelops your skin like a veil, creating an exquisite bathing experience. In addition to a compact but impressively hot high-temperature sauna, it also features a "genzen bath" that uses approximately 30°C water straight from the source for cooling down after the sauna, allowing for a comfortable hot-and-cold alternating bath experience that places no strain on the body.
A signature natural hot spring boasting an astonishing pH of over 10 and extremely strong alkalinity. It has a very smooth, slippery texture that seems to wrap around the skin, making it an exquisite skin-beautifying bath that gently removes dead skin cells. You can fully enjoy its rich texture in the spacious indoor large bath, the half-body bath, and the green open-air bath overlooking the Kamihara Ohashi Bridge, all among the largest in Nagano Prefecture.
A compact but highly heat-efficient dry sauna installed in the large bath area. With no BGM or TV, you can quietly work up a heavy sweat while surrounded by the scent of wood in the sauna room. A convection stove keeps the room at around 90°C, allowing you to warm up thoroughly.
A very rare and luxurious lukewarm source-water bath made with 100% hot spring water, using the spring water temperature of approximately 31.9°C as is. Unlike a typical ice-cold cold plunge bath, it is close to the thermoneutral zone, so you can cool down slowly and comfortably without putting strain on your body. An exquisite healing bath that you can stay in forever, ideal for thermoneutral cooling after sauna use and for hot-and-cold alternating bathing.
[Day-use bathing] 10:00–20:00 (last entry 19:30) *Closed every Wednesday (open on public holidays)
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JAPAN'S FINEST ONSEN & SAUNA
The Finest Onsen & Sauna in Japan
64 SELECTIONS
Most of what we surveyed never even made it onto this site. This book is a further cut from what did. Our editor bathed in every onsen and sauna in it, and wrote only what they confirmed on the ground.
