Mitama Hot Spring — Restaurant in Ichikawamisato

We came on a Monday around 5:30pm. There were no lines and not many people in the onsen, everything was comfortable and chill. The entry fee was about 700yen which was shockingly cheap (abt $5 given the exchange rate at the moment?) The views are simply breathtaking!!! The fog surrounding mountains, the view of Yamanashi in the valley, the sunset, it was dreamy. And the natural onsen water is full of minerals that it has a deep reddish color. My fiancé and I have never gone to a public onsen in Japan like this before and it was quite an interesting experience. It is gender segregated, and you need to be completely nude once inside. You do need to bring your own towels but they have shampoo/conditioner/body wash/hair dryer etc. You'd need 2x100 coins, one for shoes, one for clothing lockers. There's almost no foreigners here. I don't have any tattoos so am not sure about the rules around that. The staff members were really helpful even though I literally only know the word "water" in Japanese, they tried their best to guess what I meant by hand gestures. Overall a really good experience to try out. It took me about 1hr to enjoy it and I think 1-1.5hrs is probably...

This place gets 5 stars from me. Visited many times over the years. Clean showers, sauna, 2 indoor and 2 outdoor baths with great views of Southern Japanese Alps, Yatsugatake mountains and the valley below. Very reasonable price and superb facilities with onsite restaurant, massage shop, souvenir shop and large resting rooms.

Unlike many other hot-springs this place does not filter & recycle water to go back in but disposes of it once used always replenishing with fresh water from the spring's source.

Local's tips: Avoid weekends and public holidays if possible. Put shoes on top of the shoe lockers at the entrance if you want. 100yen used for shoe-lockers and indoor-lockers is returned to you when you leave, don't forget to grab it on...

This place was recommended to me by a local and he was worried that it might be excessively crowded. Fortunately, despite visiting on New Year's day, the crowd was very reasonable. The outdoor baths here are spectacular, and they give you a view all across the city to the north with mountains in all directions. It's just marvelous to sit in the hot water outside and look at the view for several minutes or for longer, whatever your body is comfortable with. Everything else about the facility is very well done, but it's not worth remarking on anything other than the spectacular view that you get...