Katsuyama Onsen Center Mizubasho: Day-Use Hot Spring

Located in Katsuyama, famous for its dinosaur museum, Katsuyama Onsen Center Mizubasho is a day-trip bath loved by locals and travelers alike. Its pride is spacious bathing halls and an abundant supply of water, and its sodium chloride spring is reputed to warm you well.

Highlights

Its greatest appeal is the open and airy outdoor bath, from which you can view the Katsuyama ridgeline on clear days. The indoor baths, sauna, cold-water bath, and open-air resting corner are all well appointed, built so you can spend a whole day at leisure. The chloride spring, gentle for cuts, sensitivity to cold, and dry skin, warms the body to the core.

Enjoying the Seasons

In winter the snow-viewing bath gazing at snow-clad mountains is exceptional, offering scenery unique to this heavy-snow region. In spring and summer the deep green ridges, and in autumn the coloring foliage, add hues to the bathing. Combined with sightseeing at the dinosaur museum, there is pleasure in visiting through the seasons.

Access and Basic Information

It can be reached by community bus from Katsuyama Station on the Echizen Railway, or about ten minutes by car from the Katsuyama Interchange on the Chubu Jukan Expressway. Opening hours are roughly ten in the morning to ten at night (last reception nine thirty), with the second Wednesday of each month closed (open year-round in August and December through March). The bathing fee is around nine hundred yen for adults from outside the city and in the three hundreds for children. It has free parking for one hundred thirty ordinary cars.

Practical Travel Notes

The recommendation is the winter snow-viewing bath, where you can savor from the tub the snowy scenery unique to heavy-snow Katsuyama. Stopping by after touring the dinosaur museum is the standard course, and from the station it is reassuring to check the community bus schedule in advance. To avoid crowds, weekdays or the morning are more relaxed. Inside there is also a sauna and a lounge, so you can spend half a day at ease. The budget, including meals and rest on top of the bathing fee, can stay in the thousand-yen range.

A Quick Tip

Stopping by after touring the dinosaur museum is perfect for loosening legs tired from walking and rounding off the trip. Gazing at the ridgeline from the open-air bath, you can bring your Katsuyama day to a leisurely close.

Practical Information for Your Visit

• Spring quality: Sodium chloride spring (from the facility's own source)
• Source temperature: 38.6 degrees
• Reputed benefits: Cuts, poor peripheral circulation, sensitivity to cold, depressive states, dry skin and more
• Bath layout: Large indoor bath, bubble bath, jet bath, cold-water bath, sauna and an open-air cooling-down corner
• Sauna: A dry (far-infrared) sauna of about 90 degrees seating around 10 people. The cold-water bath is about 16 degrees
• Bathing fee: 1,000 yen for adults (13 and over), 800 yen for adult Katsuyama city residents, 310 yen for children (ages 3 to 12), free of charge for infants (ages 0 to 2), and 410 yen for holders of a disability certificate
• Subsidy for Katsuyama residents: Show your My Number card for a rate of 650 yen for adults and 450 yen for visitors aged 65 and over
• Multi-ticket books: 5,700 yen for adults and 4,700 yen for Katsuyama residents aged 65 and over
• Opening hours: 10:00-22:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays (last admission 21:30). For weekdays the official website contains both a statement that it closes at 20:00 and one that it closes at 22:00, so if you plan an evening visit it is safest to phone ahead and confirm
• Closed: The 2nd Wednesday of each month, except in August and from December to March, when there are no closing days
• Towel rentals: Bath towel 220 yen, face towel 220 yen, sauna mat 220 yen. Razors and toothbrushes are sold at 110 yen each
• Provided amenities: Body soap, shampoo and conditioner are provided. Hair dryers are chargeable. Styling products, brushes and lotions must be brought with you, though razors and brushes can be bought at the shop
• Large tatami room: The 75-mat room can be booked in advance for use between 10:00 and 17:00, at 6,600 yen for up to 4 hours with extensions at 2,200 yen per hour. The multipurpose room also requires advance booking
• On-site facilities: Shop, cafe, relaxation corner, massage corner, valuables lockers and vending machines
• Accommodation: There are 8 guest rooms, so it can serve as an overnight base as well as a day-trip bathing stop
• Parking: Free of charge, with space for 130 ordinary cars and 6 large buses
• Access (car): About 20 minutes from the Fukui-Kita IC on the Hokuriku Expressway via the Chubu-Jukan Expressway, or about 10 minutes by car from the Katsuyama IC
• Access (train and bus): About 20 minutes from Katsuyama Station on the Echizen Railway by the Gururin community bus bound for the Chubu district
• Nearby: The Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum is about 5 minutes away by car, Heisenji Hakusan Shrine and Echizen Ono Castle about 10 minutes, and Ski Jam Katsuyama about 15 minutes
• How long to allow: About 1 hour for a bath alone, or 1.5 to 2 hours if you want to work through the sauna and the outdoor cooling-down area
• Winter: Katsuyama is a heavy-snowfall area. The facility stays open with no closing days from December to March, but if you drive there you will need winter tires or other snow measures
• Address: 30-11 Jodoji, Muraoka-cho, Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture (telephone 0779-87-1507)

Information Sources

The spring quality, source temperature and reputed benefits, the bath and sauna specifications, the bathing fees and the subsidy for Katsuyama residents, the multi-ticket books, the rental items and amenities, the large tatami room rates, the closing days, the number of parking spaces and the access details were checked against the Natural Hot Spring Day Trip Bath, Dinosaur Inn & SPA (formerly Katsuyama Onsen Center Mizubasho) official website, on its Natural Hot Spring and Facility Guide pages and the information given on individual pages. The price revision of July 18, 2026 and the change of facility name and website renewal of July 31 of the same year are announced in the news section of that site. The transfer of the business from Katsuyama City, the start of operations on April 1, 2026, the number of guest rooms and the facility layout come from the news release published by Sunfrontier Fudousan on March 25, 2026. Details are subject to change, so please check the official information before you set out.