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Fuji-Hakone-Izu NP, Tokyo
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A 1950s geological survey recorded Sueyoshi hot water seeping between beach boulders south of Dōrinsawa harbor only at low tide. This onsen showed itself on the ocean’s schedule.
Hachijo is made of 2 volcanoes, but every hot spring currently in use lies at the southern foot of Higashiyama (Mihara), not the northwestern Hachijo-Fuji. Most are salty sodium-chloride waters, 40–65°C at the source.
Most of Hachijo’s springs are sodium-chloride waters, but Dōrinsawa is a chemistry curveball: its water contains calcium, sodium, bicarbonate, chloride and sulfate, and emerges at 41.2°C.
Hachijo’s town-run onsen project began in 1992 alongside geothermal exploration. Fureai no Yu opened on October 19, 1994, and passed 100,000 visits by November 1995; the island’s geothermal power station began operating in 1999.
Fureai no Yu’s building uses Hachijo cedar and cypress, and its large indoor bath and open-air bath are entirely hinoki cypress. Even a volcanic soak here has a distinctly island-grown touch.
Beside Sueyoshi’s Dōrinsawa fishing harbor stands what the local tourism association describes as Hachijo’s oldest hot-spring facility. The free bath remains popular with residents and surfers as well as visitors.
Beside Fureai no Yu, the town maintains Danran, a separate barrier-free hot-spring bath for people with disabilities. It’s a thoughtful part of the island’s public bathing facilities.
At Miharashi no Yu, the open-air bath is shaped like a gourd. It is assigned to men on odd-numbered days and women on even-numbered days, while the lighthouse-side bath switches the other way.
