Kita no Tamayura Ebetsu-ten

Kita no Tamayura Ebetsu-ten is a large day-use bathhouse on the edge of Ebetsu, big enough for a whole afternoon: a wide main tub, an electric bath, jet baths, a lying-down bath, a bath with black-silica tile, and two open-air baths, one in hinoki wood. The onsen water is a moor spring, dark brown and clear, with a smooth, faintly slick feel on the skin. A dry sauna and a cold plunge sit alongside the baths, and the building has a restaurant, a lounge and a large tatami rest hall. It reads as an everyday neighborhood bathhouse rather than a tourist stop, wide and unfussy, the kind of place regulars keep coming back to.