Sunday, August 29, 2010

Yunotsu Onsen, Shimane / 温泉津温泉、島根

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Old store front along the main road to the onsen.

Yunotsu Onsen is a very Shimane town. Lost in the Japan sea side of Honshu this little onsen village recently has had a tourist boost thanks UNESCO naming a near-by sliver mine as a world heritage site. While I doubt that will increase foreign tourists to the area, it has made it much more important to the local Japanese tourism market which really plays up the world heritage title.

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Senyakuto, a very simple and oldest bath in the village.

There are two day use (日帰り 外湯) baths in the village. I, sadly, had time for only one. The water here was incredible. The well puts water out at about 49c which is then cooled to around 45c for the hot tub and around 41c for the normal tub. One of the best bathhouse experiences I've ever had.

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Notice the stone stairs behind the truck. It looked like the original town was carved into the sides of the mountain.

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A butterfly-like insect on the flowers in front of Senyakuto

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Great rusted storefront on the way from the station to the onsen.

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Abandoned-looking industrial building on the small harbor.

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Yunotu Station.

4 comments:

Toranosuke V said...

Beautiful. I love these tiny, out-of-the-way places. I need to spend more time in Japan, and visit more of these kinds of places.

angryparsnip said...

Every time I see your smaller out of the way places I want to live there or at lest visit....
lovely !

cheers, parsnip

Lomandra said...

I enjoyed your post on Yunotsu. I agree with you that its a good place to visit.
I stayed 3 days in Yunotsu in January 2012. I really enjoyed it. Visiting Iwami Ginza site was very worthwhile. There are many walks in the park so wish I had even more time. Walking around Yunotsu was very interesting and enjoyable too. The place has personality and the spa waters there are excellent.I would love to go back.

sleepytako said...

Thanks for your comment. Shimane is a beaufiful and very rural part of Japan that many tourists never visit. Glad to hear that you made it there on your trip. And thanks for coming to Japan despite all the post 3.11 problems.