Higashikurume Onsen

Higashikurume Onsen is a community thermal facility in the city of Higashikurume in western Tokyo Prefecture, a small, green residential city traversed by the Shirako River—one of the few remaining clean rivers in the Tokyo metropolitan area, whose pristine water quality and natural hotaru (firefly) habitat in summer have made it a symbol of urban environmental conservation in an otherwise intensely developed metropolitan landscape. The siliceous mineral waters provide warm, accessible bathing for the residents of a city that has successfully maintained its small-town character and natural creek environment against the suburban sprawl of the Tokyo-Yokohama corridor, where the Shirako River's spring cherry blossoms and summer firefly evenings draw nature-oriented residents from neighboring cities. The Shirako River's remarkable ecological health, the community-oriented Higashikurume shopping streets, and the warm mineral waters of the neighborhood onsen give this small city a gently charming, nature-connected identity within the otherwise relentlessly urban western Tokyo metropolitan zone.