Sainokawara Open-Air Bath — Attraction in Kusatsu

This open air bath is located in park - Sainokawara which has a lot of foot baths.

About the open air bath - there are two sections, male and female and on Friday evenings there is a mixed bath for both men and women.

You can bring your own swimming suit for mixed bathing. I do not recommend for ladies to bring their own western swimming suits on this day, unless you are interested in a hookup 😄

The place rents swimming suits for both men and women. The price is around 400 yen.

There is no towels rental, but you can purchase towels. Small one costs 380 yen, big one - 1400 or 1700 yen (don’t remember).

There are no showers, or any amenities like soap.

For the locker inside the changing room you need 100 yen coin and once you lock it - you lose the coin.

I went there on Friday evening with my husband and there was a sausage party 😄😄 only ladies that were there were married or in relationships.

I believe that a normal visit with separate baths would be better, but as I like cleaner environments I would not visit this place again. Foot baths in the park are more...

Highly recommend outdoor onsen, even in heavy snow fall!

We arrived around 530pm after sunset and it was -7 degrees celcius out and snowing quite heavily.

The walk into the park was well lit and the main areas were all lit so it made for quite a magical walk up. You can also visits the nearby Inari shire for some added luck.

The entrance fee is 700yen which I think is very affordable for such a beautiful outdoor onsen. You should bring your towel as they charge 1350yen for a bath towel and 300yen for a small one.

Inside the changing room, you can get a locker for your belongings for 100yen. If not the normal pigeonholes for your clothes will suffice.

The men’s pool is bigger than the ladies but the ladies pool is still pretty big for an outdoor onsen. There is no wash area to shampoo or soap up so instead you rinse yourself before getting into the pool. It’s not very well lit so be careful when entering the pool as there are many natural landscaping rocks around the area and you might...

Sainogawara Hot Spring is THE open air onsen that everyone needs to visit while they are in Kusatsu.

The open air bath is located near the top of Sainogawara Park, with its many foot baths and steaming pools of onsen. It's quite a magical and calming place to explore especially if you've been traveling the country for some time.

Entry is ¥1000 for adults and they do accept card. It's recommended you bring your own towels from your accommodations if possible. They also have ¥100 coin lockers if you'd like to store valuables.

The open air bath was large and just a wonderful place to be during a cold winter's night. It's separated by gender so no co-ed space sharing here. Plenty of space to lay out and enjoy the baths available.

Highly recommend for anyone visiting to stop on by and take a dip. You may find yourself no longer needing to visit your own hotel's onsen after dropping in...