Yasashigaura Onsenkan

We stayed as a family and found the bath really relaxing. There's currently just one bath, so guests take turns, and you can't use it while someone else is bathing. The food was good as well. At 9000 yen a night with two meals, I thought it was very good value. The building is quite old, and the toilet is too, though it didn't smell unpleasant. There was no lock on our room door, so keep an eye on your valuables.

Sakura-chan, the shop's second-generation cat, greeted us when we arrived. She apparently wandered in through the hot spring facility's back entrance and became its mascot. She was so friendly that during our extended stay she came to our room, said hello, and stayed until morning. With its nostalgic feel, this place may appeal to cat lovers, hot spring fans, and people who like the sense of visiting their grandmother's house. It may not be as comfortable as a big hotel in every way. I stayed several nights on a business trip without meals. The elderly proprietress handles everything herself, including cooking, and some areas show wear, but the rooms are clean. There are four Japanese-style rooms upstairs. In the rooms you'll find an electric kettle, yukata, and toothbrush; the building also has a TV, air conditioning, and Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi worked very well for videos. The shared upstairs washroom has a hairdryer and refrigerator, and the guest toilet there has a bidet. On the first floor are the entrance, reception, and lounge, with a table area at the back right and the bathhouse farther back. I arrived at night and was greeted at the entrance by the nice smell of tempura, a late-night snack left from previous guests. There are two free parking areas. One is the open space to the right and in front of the inn, with room for about 3-4 cars. The access road is narrow, so take care. The other holds about 5-6 cars. Cross the Kujukuri Beach Line south from the hot spring building and look for it on the right, by the sign on a dilapidated white minivan. The bath fits about three people. Some showers have weak pressure, but good-quality botanical shampoo and conditioner are supplied. The water is a light green, not the coffee-colored black water at Shiosai Hotel or Iioka Onsen. It's a heated cold mineral spring, not free-flowing. Water from the tap has a faint sulfur smell, along with a pleasant scent like river algae. It feels nice on the skin, and I stayed warm after bathing without tightness or needing moisturizer. A good hot spring. Bathing hours are approximately 7:00-8:30 in the morning and 15:00-20:30 in the evening. Nearby, there's a sushi restaurant within walking distance, a good curry udon place about 1.5km away by car, a 7-Eleven about 1km north, and a Kasumi Food Market supermarket about 3km north.

The landlady is so kind and heartwarming. I hope she has a long life. The place smells of Sakura-chan the cat from the entrance, so anyone with a cat allergy should avoid staying here. This is a cold mineral spring that's heated, and I thought the water quality was good. There's a photo of the water-quality chart to refer to, and the values are quite high. It also contains a slight amount of radon.

The water kept me warm for a long time, and though the bath was quite hot when I had the place to myself, I cooled it using the cold-spring-water tap in the tub. Anyone who likes hot springs and retro places may find it worth visiting, though it may be challenging for people who are very particular about cleanliness. This is a day-trip hot spring only, with no overnight stays. It's apparently the first hot spring in Chiba Prefecture to be registered and officially recognized. The proprietress's late husband was a university graduate and, for his time, a well-mannered professional. In the past, any place where hot water came out of a hole in the ground could apparently be called a hot spring. Parking is very limited, with space for only two cars, and the lot floods when it rains, so watch out for wet shoes.