Kaminoyama Onsen Sawanoyu

A small municipal communal bath down a back street in the Shinyu quarter of Kaminoyama Onsen, easy to miss behind its plain signboard. Inside is one indoor tub, round and fairly deep, filled with clear onsen water that runs milder than most of the town's other communal baths, the kind you can settle into for a long soak rather than a quick hot dip. Washing stations have shampoo, conditioner and body soap, though there are no overhead showers, just taps and stools in the older style. Children are admitted too. A paid resting room upstairs exists but isn't clearly signposted, so ask the attendant if you want to use it. The building looks its age from the outside, but the inside is kept clean and freshened up, and some visitors mention a friendly, chatty attendant at the counter.