There are countless hot springs all over Japan, from Okinawa in the south to Hokkaido in the north. Over the years I’ve been to quite a few abandoned hot spring hotels, but I’ve never actually seen an abandoned hot spring by itself…
We (my exploration buddies Kyoko, Dan, and I) found the Mount Aso Hot Spring by chance while exploring the remains of the *Aso Kanko Hotel* – one of my friends spotted ascending smoke / steam behind some trees and were curious about it. Since it always takes me longer than them to explore and take pictures, they headed out to have a look while I stayed behind to finish up.
It turned out that the source of the steam was a complex arrangement of extremely rusty metal containers and pipes, some of them leaking water – the air filled with a sulphuric stench. So this was the well that once supplied hot spring water to the Aso Tourist Hotel… pipes leading there still fixed to a wall and partly covered by a landslide on the way there. Some nearby ruined buildings furthermore suggested that the well was used to feed one or two onsen with the same water. Since we were short of time on that beautiful, bright spring day, I didn’t have a closer look at the remaining buildings, but they looked rundown, partly collapsed and overall really uninteresting anyway – if you are interested in abandoned onsen, you’ll find more than enough good ones on Abandoned Kansai!
So I focused on taking a couple of quick shots of the convoluted metal structure and a puddle of hot water down the road, always avoiding the haze and it breathtaking stench. Less than half an hour later I was back with my patient friends in the car, heading out to explore what turned out to be the *Trust Hospital*. Personally I loved the Mount Aso Hot Spring, because it was a nice, small, unique location – nothing epic like *Nara Dreamland*, but unexpected and interesting in its own way. This article comes with a small gallery and a rather short video though, but if you stay with me, I promise that I will present some gigantic spectacular locations again soon. There’s a time and a place for everything… 🙂
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Abandoned Kansai 
interesting,it looks rather like some industrial complex than an hot spring to me tho haha
Abandoned industrial complexes are rare in Japan – I wish there were more…
I like a good onsen, though my experiences are limited.
First proper one was at a hotel somewhere near Shizuoka, I think. Then in various hotels while touring, and finally during a week’s stay at Kinosaki.
I really do hate the sulpher smelling ones though, and avoid them.
Interesting find there though, love the pictures.
A whole week in Kinosaki Onsen? I’ve never been there, probably because it’s rather close and “I can go whenever I want” and then don’t go at all… I’ve been nearby though, to explore the abandoned Hyogo Construction Ruin (https://abandonedkansai.com/2014/11/11/hyogo-construction-ruin/).
There were good and bad aspects to Kinosaki Onsen. ‘Good’, was that there is a variety of onsen within close proximity to each other that you could sample. The ‘bad’ was that, when we went (mid-August) there were a lot of tourists around.
Overall, it was a positive experience that I’d happily repeat.
I feel weird complaining about ‘tourists’, when I was actually one of them. However, I really consider myself a ‘Japanophile’ … if that puts me in a higher/better category.