Yunogo Onsen (湯郷温泉, Yunogō Onsen) or simply Yunogō is a hot spring town located in Mimasaka city of Okayama Prefecture, Japan. The waters of the Yunogo hot springs (onsen in Japanese) are a mixture of sodium chloride and calcium chloride, with the amount of discharge at 540 L/min.[1] The waters are said to have healing effects on those suffering from chronic digestive disorders, nerve pain, rheumatism, arthralgia, chronic feminine problems, and skin problems.[2]
Yunogo Onsen is known as “Sagi no-yu,” or hot water of the heron (sagi is the Japanese word for egret or heron) because 1,200 years ago a Buddhist high priest named En-nin-houshi discovered an injured heron bathing its wounded leg in the waters of a hot spring in Yunogo. This is how the special healing powers of these waters were discovered, and they now have evolved into a spot where people come to relax and enjoy the waters. There is a statue of En-nin with a heron outside of the “Yunogo Sagi Onsen-kan,” the public bathhouse created in the exact spot where the heron's hot spring was discovered.[3]
By Bus: 1 hour and 40 min. from JR Okayama St. by bus headed to “Yunogo Onsen”. Get off the bus at “Yunogo.” 40 min. from Tsuyama St. of the JR Tsuyama Line by bus headed to “Yunogo Onsen.” Get off the bus at “Yunogo.”
By Car: 10 min. from Mimasaka IC of Chugoku Express Way[4]
34°59′38.1″N 134°8′14.8″E / 34.993917°N 134.137444°E / 34.993917; 134.137444
