Echinzen Open-Air Onsen NIHONKAI

Echizen Onsen Rotenburo Nihonkai is a small day-use bathhouse on the Echizen coast, with an indoor bath and an open-air tub that both look straight out at the Sea of Japan. The water runs clear and faintly salty, smooth on the skin. Washing stations are stocked with shampoo, conditioner and body soap, and there's a free rest area you can come and go from afterward. It's a plain, functional building run by the town rather than a resort, and people come mainly for the view: the sea fills the whole scene from the open-air tub, especially at sunset. Public transport along this stretch of coast is thin, so most visitors arrive by car.