Shibu Onsen Nine Public Baths

Shibu Onsen is a small hot spring town in Yamanouchi built around nine historic public bath houses, each drawing from a different mineral spring and traditionally believed to treat a different ailment, from skin conditions to joint pain. The baths, numbered one through nine, are strung along the town's narrow, stone-paved main lane, which is lined with wooden ryokan several stories tall, their lantern-lit facades and overhanging eaves giving Shibu Onsen an atmosphere often compared to a scene from a Studio Ghibli film. The traditional custom is the kuriyu meguri, a circuit in which visitors, usually staying overnight at one of the town's ryokan, are given a wooden key and a stamp card and visit as many of the nine baths as they wish over an evening, stamping the card at each one; a ninth bath, Oku-no-Yu, is reserved for those who complete the other eight in a single stay. Each bath is compact, typically fitting only a handful of bathers at a time, and etiquette calls for a brief soak rather than a long one so others waiting outside can take a turn. A relaxed evening working through four to six of the nine baths, with time to walk the lane and admire the architecture, takes about 2 to 3 hours; completing the full kuriyu meguri circuit typically takes a full evening or is spread across an overnight stay. The town is busiest in the early evening after dinner service at the ryokan, when most guests set out on the bath circuit, and quietest in the late morning before check-in. Winter, when snow settles on the wooden eaves and steam rises from the lanes, is considered the most atmospheric season to visit.