Hanyu Onsen Saitama

Hanyu, in the northern Saitama Prefecture at the confluence of the Tone and Watarase rivers, is known as the hometown of astronaut Akiyama Toyohiro — Japan's first journalist in space who launched aboard a Soviet Soyuz mission in 1990 — and the city's connection to space exploration is celebrated alongside its traditional silk textile and agricultural heritage in the broad Kanto plain. Hanyu Onsen Saitama draws on chloride-rich thermal waters from the geological resources of the northern Saitama lowlands, providing warm restorative baths in a river confluence city whose space exploration heritage, traditional textile culture, and position at the junction of the Tone and Watarase rivers create an interesting and varied spa setting. The Hanyu Space Observatory and astronaut heritage museum, the Tone-Watarase river levee cycling paths, and the traditional Saitama thick udon noodle culture celebrated in the Kazo-Hanyu northern Saitama agricultural corridor create an appealingly varied destination for thermal spa visitors in northern Saitama Prefecture.