Yamanaka Onsen Soyu Kiku no Yu

Kiku no Yu (菊の湯) is the soyu (総湯, communal public bath) of Yamanaka Onsen, and it has been the heart of the town's bathing culture for centuries. The poet Matsuo Basho (松尾芭蕉) praised the spring during his famous journey recorded in Oku no Hosomichi (奥の細道), and locals have been coming here ever since. Men's and women's baths are in two separate, nicely built buildings side by side. Each has one large indoor bath, hot and deep enough to give you pause, with washing stations along the sides. Outside the men's building there is a drinking spring (inseki, 飲泉) to try. The bathhouse also cooks onsen tamago (温泉卵, onsen eggs) in the spring water out front; buy them at the men's counter and reserve ahead.