Nagato Yumoto Onsen Onto Square

Although it has ended now, the UTAAKARI Hot Spring Village Light Festival was in progress when I visited. It seemed like they were performing short stories using light in Japanese, English, and Chinese, but I couldn't understand much of it. It starts after sunset and runs until 10 PM, and it was fun to watch. Since I stayed in the Nagato Yumoto hot spring town on a weekday, the surrounding shops had all closed early, but I imagine it would have been much more lively on the weekend. It seemed to be an annual festival, and I was lucky enough to be able to participate. I hope to see it again next year.

Even though I know it's foolish to compare it to the past, I can't help but lament it when I do. I'm sure it was done to ensure parking in the hot spring center, but with everything, including Onyu, now done to this extent, there's no sense in it whatsoever. The local manager is probably happy, saying "This is cool. I wanted something like this at my hot spring!", but I'm sure the many long-time customers aren't looking for something like this. The new facility is beautiful, so it will likely be well-received, but the question now is whether it can be maintained.

Children were having fun jumping over the stones. Apparently the spacing between the stones is designed to make it easy to jump over. It seems you can also splash around in the river in the summer, so I'd love to visit again.

Maybe it was because we went off-season, but it was a quiet, charming little place. There's construction going on now, which has ruined the view a bit, but I'm looking forward to it being finished.

I stumbled upon this place during Golden Week and pulled into the parking lot. It had a nice atmosphere, so I took a walk along the river. There was a ping pong table, and kids were playing. 😊 …