Yanagawa Onsen
- Location
- Yanagawa, Fukuoka (Kyushu), Japan
- Water type
- sodium chloride
- Temperature
- 41 °C
- pH
- 7.3
Water profile
Relaxing — deep, immediate muscle release.
Loaded with major ions — the essential minerals (Ca, Mg).
Dense, salty water — you float without effort.
Yanagawa Onsen is located in Yanagawa, the 'Venice of Kyushu' — a city in the Chikugo lowlands of southern Fukuoka Prefecture whose 930-kilometer network of historic waterways, originally constructed in the feudal era for agricultural drainage and defense, has been preserved and restored as the heart of the city's cultural identity and tourism appeal, with the traditional donko-bune flat-bottomed pole boats carrying visitors through willow-lined canals between the city's historic samurai residences and merchant townscape in a leisurely journey that recalls the water-borne rhythms of Edo-period life. Yanagawa is equally celebrated for its unaju — fresh eel (unagi) steamed and grilled over charcoal then served over rice in lacquered boxes — a specialty prepared according to the unique 'Yanagawa method' that has made this city's eel restaurants destinations for gourmets from across Japan. The onsen here provide silica-rich mineral bathing as the perfect warm conclusion to a day of canal boating and eel dining in one of Kyushu's most atmospheric and culinarily rewarding cities.