Ojiro no Yu or Mukawa no Yu? Two Hokuto Onsen Day Trips Compared
Compare Hokuto’s Ojiro no Yu salt-rich baths with Mukawa no Yu’s lounge and restaurant, including current equipment notices and access.
Checked: September 27, 2026
Both baths are in Hokuto’s rural south, with outdoor pools and sauna, but the water and the way you spend the rest of the day are quite different. Ojiro no Yu is part of Hakushu Ojiro Forest Park Verga and is best known for its mineral-rich “red water” source bath. Mukawa no Yu is a stand-alone day spa with a wider set of pools, a large tatami room and a restaurant.
| Ojiro no Yu | Mukawa no Yu | |
|---|---|---|
| Adult admission shown by the venue | ¥830 for visitors from outside Hokuto | Current operator and city pages do not publish a fee; call before going |
| Hours | 10 am–9 pm; last admission 8:30 pm | 10 am–9 pm; last admission 8 pm |
| Regular closing | Wednesday; moves to Thursday when Wednesday is a holiday | Tuesdays from early January through late March; otherwise no weekly closure listed |
| Main draw | A high-salinity source bath and a 1:9 diluted outdoor pool | About ten bath types, a 72-mat rest room and a restaurant |
| Current facility note | Women’s dry and mist saunas are listed | Women’s dry sauna remains under a no-use notice; men’s reclining bath and waterfall shower reopened September 10, 2026 |
Ojiro’s water is the main reason to go
The operator distinguishes two outdoor baths that are easy to blur together in a short description. The red source-water bath uses the highly concentrated spring; the other outdoor pool mixes one part source with nine parts natural water. The indoor bath, reclining bath, waterfall shower and cold plunge round out the bathing area. The cold plunge uses well water, not the same high-salinity spring.
The prefectural tourism listing gives the source temperature as 39.5°C and the flow as 160.7 litres per minute. These are source figures, not a promise that the pool temperature will be identical. The facility lists adult admission at ¥830 for visitors from outside Hokuto and ¥420 for children; towel purchases and locker details can add to the bare ticket price.
Mukawa has more room to stay awhile
Mukawa lists ten bathing options, including bubble, jet, pressure, outdoor and sauna baths. The 72-mat lounge and the restaurant serving locally grown Mukawa rice make it easier to turn a soak into a longer break. Food service runs 11 am–8:30 pm, last order 8 pm, though the operator says seasonal hours can change.
The venue’s current page does not show an admission price. Older listings may still give a figure, but the present facility and city pages do not confirm it; call the venue at 0551-20-3113 rather than budgeting from an undated directory entry.
Equipment notices matter here. The outdoor baths reopened on May 30 after an earlier repair. The men’s reclining bath and waterfall shower reopened on September 10 following an August outage. A July 14 notice still says the women’s dry sauna is unavailable, with no reopening date listed as of this check. The facility is operating, but that does not mean every bath is available on every visit.
Access and the short version
Neither bath is a station-front stop. Ojiro is inside Verga; Mukawa is at 1322 Makihara, Mukawa-cho. Both make more sense by car or as part of a wider Hokuto day out. Check the venue’s current transport information before relying on a bus or taxi connection.
Pick Ojiro if you want to compare the concentrated and diluted spring pools. Mukawa works better when a long rest, food and a broad range of bath types matter more than a particular source-water profile. For Ojiro, note that a separate bookable bath elsewhere in Verga has its own rules; do not assume those conditions apply to Ojiro’s shared bathing area.
