Onsen Facility Types

The neighborhood public bath, and a local institution. Fixed price at the door: wash, soak, go home.

• The prefecture caps the price, not the owner, so it sits around 400 to 600 yen for an adult and barely varies locally.
• Sento is a licensing category, not a water type. Many heat plain water, but plenty sit on a real source and serve onsen, especially in east Tokyo and Kyushu.
• Bring soap and a towel, or rent them at the counter. Not every sento supplies them.
• The village version, kyodo-yu (共同浴場) or soto-yu (外湯), works the same way but is community-run, often on an honor box, and nearly always onsen.

The sento idea scaled up: a large day-use complex with many baths, a sauna, food, and somewhere to lie down.

• Not price-regulated, so roughly 800 to 3,000 yen depending on the place, the day, and whether the sauna costs extra.
• Built for a whole afternoon: indoor and outdoor baths, sauna, cold plunge, restaurant, reclining chairs.
• Plenty drill a real source, so a super sento can absolutely be an onsen. Read the sign, not the name.

A traditional inn: tatami rooms, futon, dinner and breakfast included, and baths that are usually why you came.

• The rate is per person and includes two meals, so it looks steep next to a hotel room rate until you notice the dinner.
• The men's and women's baths often swap overnight, so you get both.
• Many open their baths to non-guests during the day. Look for higaeri nyuyoku (日帰り入浴).

The large resort hotel, kanko hotel (観光ホテル): the ryokan idea at a few hundred rooms of scale.

• Big communal baths, buffet dinners, a souvenir floor, karaoke. Built for groups and families.
• Rooms Japanese, Western, or a mix, and the building usually concrete from the 1970s to 90s.
• The easiest kind to book late, and to get a day-use bath at without calling ahead.

A family-run guesthouse. Simpler and cheaper than a ryokan, and often someone's actual home.

• A handful of rooms, home cooking, shared washrooms. The bath may be one family-sized tub you book by the slot.
• Often the only lodging in small onsen villages and near wild baths.
• Cash is still common, and check-in times are firm: someone is cooking your dinner.

A plain, cheap city hotel with a communal bath, daiyokujo (大浴場), on the top floor or in the basement.

• Some chains drill genuine sources, making this one of the cheapest ways to sleep above real onsen water.
• Compact single rooms, nothing included beyond breakfast, a short walk from the station.
• The bath is normally for guests only, unlike a ryokan's.

Noyu (野湯): hot water reaching the surface with little or nothing built around it. A riverbed, a beach, a hollow in the mountains.

• Free, or an honor box on a post. No staff, no lockers, often no changing room.
• Conditions shift with weather and season, and some wash out entirely after heavy rain.
• Mixed by default, and swimwear rules vary. Go knowing that, and carry your trash out.

A shallow public basin of spring water you dip one part of yourself into, usually free and right on the street.

• Ashiyu (足湯) for the feet is the common one. Onsen towns also build hand baths (teyu, 手湯), and a few have a face bath (kaoyu, 顔湯) you lean into for the steam.
• Nothing to take off but your socks, and no changing room to find.
• Bring a small towel. Hardly any of them provide one.