The Milky White Hot Waters of Shirahone Onsen’s Awa No Yu in Nagano Prefecture

The main building really tells of its long history

Awa no Yu’s wooden building stands secretly in front of the bus station with its rustic flavor.

This is indeed the famous Awa no Yu.

The mood from the building’s exterior exudes authenticity with its historic feel.

The pictured building here is only for staying guests.

There is an entrance for visitor bathers further below the parking lot in the right side of the image.

This is the visitor entrance!

This is the entrance for people here for visitor baths.

It’s almost a backdoor to the concrete reinforced building.

Honestly they could have built this entrance with a bit more décor in my opinion, but, I guess if you can accept it as the builders putting all their effort into making the best bath house they could then all is forgiven I suppose.

This time I visited in the summer on a weekday, for the visitor bath opening time right at 10:30am but there were already people waiting!

It just goes to show the popularity of this hot spring.

The super popular coed outdoor bath!

This is the famous coed outdoor bath of Awa no Yu!

Because of its opacity women can feel at ease.

Also, they allow you to bath with a towel on so for female visiting bathers if you use a large thick towel or an onsen bathing suit you won’t feel uneasy.

As you can see pictured above, hot water pours down wooden sluices in a commotion.

The water is naturally only 36.9 degrees but is heated to a around 40 to make it warm enough to really feel like a bath.

The water is actually heated with a heat exchanger. Making it better as we onsen lovers know.

This is a really great system, which doesn’t allow the water to deteriorate in its quality much when heating.

These heat exchanger machines are quite expensive, and you can feel the understanding of onsens and the want of the owner to provide the best experience.

I am really thankful for this.

As you can see the water is close to its natural milky white beauty as possible.

The water is also fairly soft with the perfect amount of sulfur scent.

The surrounding nature and mood really is easy on the eyes and heart as well.

This really is the epitome of Japan’s outdoor baths.

I understand why this place is famous around the nation.

*I wanted to take a picture of the whole thing but it came out like this because of the other bathers.

There is also a small hidden outdoor bath!

Most of the articles about Awa no Yu are of the large coed outdoor bath but there is also a cozy bath as shown above. (there is one for male and female each)

This time I visited it seemed the smaller baths were more opaque in their milky whiteness.

These baths are much less crowded than the other large bath so if you want to really relax look for these.