There lies the source of the hot springs called Yubatake at the very center of Kusatsu onsen town in Gunma, where some 4600 liters of the hot springs are gushing out every minute.

The seven wooden pipes stretching out in the middle of the picture are the old devices to produce a sulfurous hot spring deposit called Yunohana by cooling hot water from the source. The common name of yubatake, literally a 'hot spring field', comes from a place to collect Yunohana. Yunohana were used for bug killers or bleaches and now they are sold as bath additives. This Yubatake is very well known as a symbol of Kusatsu onsen, though there are many onsens and yubatakes in Japan. In the evening, a crowd of people enjoying a walk with a Yukata, an informal cotton kimono after a bath, can be seen around here.

Licensed tour guide/travel assistant,
Masahisa Takaki.