Eastern Saitama's Urban Onsen

These days, I don’t get out much due to the pandemic situation, but one of the few places that I retire to is onsen destinations close to home. Sure, I’d love to get away to a mountain retreat or the seaside. These days, I have been discovering dozens of suburban onsen hot spring spas within an easy train ride of urban centers in the eastern part of the Kanto area. Even in dense Saitama Prefecture cities close to the hub Omiya Station, there are three standout places I like to go. If I have to choose the best, these are the three that I think are standout locations with restful surroundings and soothing spa waters.

Seiganji Onsen

A short bus ride from Omiya Station is Seiganji Onsen located in a residential area of Nishi Ward, Saitama City. The bath greets you with a walk through a Japanese-garden-inspired landscape, with stone steps and low plantings. The place captures the classic ambiance of a countryside onsen with rambling corridors and windows that look out onto the stone and greenery in the gardens.

The reception is partially automated - you check in on a digital panel for bath admission and aesthetic treatments such as massage.

What I liked most about the spa is the dense bamboo on the east side of the outdoor baths, providing both privacy and a lovely rustling sound that brings to mind countryside ambiance. The outdoor baths feature “namagenseyu”, untreated chloride hot spring water that is refreshed continuously.

Koharu Biyori Onsen

Koharu Biyori Onsen in Saitama City, Minuma Ward takes a little more effort to get to. I started my bus trip to this onsen at Iwatsuki Station in the town famed for its doll production. If you have time and interest in dolls, it’s a great place to see exquisite dolls at the shops and the museum there before your bath. The bus trip was about 40 minutes long, a meandering journey through suburban Minuma Ward that gave way to a more rural landscape of orchards and farms.

This onsen transports you to another place with water and stone features around a pond near the entrance. Once you’re scrubbed down, the outdoor baths with chloride strong salt hot springs sheltered by pavilions are waiting. The outdoor baths are surrounded by trees and a landscape that brings to mind a traditional tea garden with a vermillion bridge, water spilling over stones, and flowering shrubs.

The natural temperature of some of the baths is low at 38 degrees celsius, so if you can acclimatize to the hotter baths. 

Uta no Yu Onsen

Hands down, Uta no Yu Onsen in neighboring Sugito Town is my favorite onsen in the area. The experience starts at Sugito Station where a shuttle bus whisks you through the town past vintage townhouses to the low slung profile of the onsen among the rice paddies.

The onsen feels timeless, and you can easily spend a day relaxing here. At the reception to the bath, guests are provided attractive patterned kanchaku, a shorts and shirt set. Between soaks, you can stroll around in your kanchaku.

The outdoor baths are situated in a garden with meandering paths with lots of variety - very hot baths to warm ones, reclining baths, and ceramic tsubo pots to submerge up to your neck. The ganbanyoku, the hot stone spa, is available for an extra fee. 

The corridors of the onsen wrap around a courtyard garden with flowering trees, a footbath, and verandas for lounging. It's a great place to go with family or on a date as you can soak and then gather in the tatami rooms, verandas, or at the footbath.

On my visits, I usually finish my onsen experience with a light meal at Miyabi, the izakaya-style restaurant. The onsen also has a buffet restaurant, Irodori, for people with big appetites. Either of the restaurants have the atmosphere of a country manor with soaring rafters.

At these onsens, I can imagine I've gotten away to somewhere else, and forget the time. Yet I can return home within the day. I feel fortunate to have such getaways so closeby.