Obanazawa · JP

Ginzan Onsen Public Bath Shiroganeyu

Shiroganeyu is the public bathhouse that gives day visitors the one reliable chance to soak in Ginzan Onsen's sulphurous hot spring water. Tucked near the entrance to the town's famous Taisho-era street of wooden ryokan, this compact two-storey building was designed by internationally renowned architect Kengo Kuma and opened in 2001. Its black timber-slat facade is modern enough to stand out among the retro inns, yet harmonises with the surrounding wooden architecture. For ¥500, you get the same free-flowing sodium-chloride-sulphate spring that fills the ryokan baths—hot, mineral-rich, and faintly sulphurous—along with a strikingly atmospheric interior of indirect lighting and dark timber. With tubs seating only three or four people, it stays intimate and village-like, a far cry from the sprawling resort complexes found elsewhere in Japan.