salt's cation — pairs with chloride to make the water salty.
Sulfate SO₄²⁻
"gypsum / Glauber's salt" — vessels and wound healing.
Known good for
Skin conditionsatopic skin, eczema
Circulationtired legs
Smooth skindry, rough skin
Sensitive-skin cautionbroken or dry skin
An alkaline simple sulfur spring with a strongly alkaline pH of 9.6 that gives a remarkable slippery, beauty-water feel on the skin. It carries hydrogen sulfide, so the pale-yellow water at the source has a faint metallic-and-sulfur note. Sodium and sulfate lead the modest mineralization at 663 mg/kg.
Sampled at wellhead·Analyzed Mar 9, 2017·株式会社 山梨県環境科学検査センター·Cert no. 山環温第28-11号
550. 寺尾の湯, Fuefuki, Yamanashi ★
Onsen for 700 (500 for locals). Operating hours are listed as 10:00 to 21:00 (closed Wed). In the Yamanashi 100 Onsen stamp book they stamp a different stamp. Bath photos are from the internet, match the real thing.
There was a funny story here about calling a taxi in the evening. I asked the woman at reception to call one by phone, and she went to the office. Then different people started coming out of the office one by one, asking me where I needed to go, and going back inside to call and talk to the taxi company. In the end, four staff members took turns ordering my taxi, creating quite a commotion at the reception desk.
At some point, a simple, burly guy came up and started helping them. He looked at my phone where the next onsen was listed in Japanese. First he reacted like "Oh, I know what that place is. That's the onsen at such-and-such," and then he paused for a second, turned to me and said "Wait, you just came from an onsen, and you're going to another one?" And he, the staff, and I all started cracking up.
The guy leaves, the chaos and laughter at reception continue. About a minute later the guy comes back and says, basically, forget it, I'll just drive you myself. He turned out to be a super cool guy — praised Hottarakashi, gave me respect for the onsen journey. When we arrived at the next onsen, I of course gave him a matryoshka doll. The moment he saw it he recognized it immediately, got really happy, and had a great time opening the layers.
1. Indoor area. Breathing inside is fine.
2.1. Bath with clear slightly yellowish water, temperature around 40.
2.2. Sauna.
2.3. Cold bath.
2. Outdoor area around the outdoor bath. Between the bath and the fence, a large empty lot with nothing on it. From the onsen you can see mountain tops and the sunset — beautiful.
2.1. Bath with clear slightly yellowish water, temperature around 39.
2.2. Bath with clear slightly yellowish water, temperature around 41.
The onsen itself is fairly average, but the cool story with the taxi and the guy makes it impossible not to highlight — emotionally it was great.
12.05.2025
