Enjoy warming your body at this outstanding Niseko Kogane Hot Spring!

“Kogane Hot Spring” which warms the body with its bubbly hot water and offers you the chance to eat its Rankoshi rice is well known. It is run by Katsuro Hayashi(林勝郎), a rice farmer in Rankoshi cho town who went from adding buildings and bathtubs to the open-air bath garden over a decade or so and handmade this privately run hot spring facility.
 
It is only open from May to October and can be operated without external warming due to the low source temperature. Due to its location near Mt. Yotei and Niseko Annupuri, every season many hot-spring fans from all over the country are visiting.

A signboard that suddenly appears in the countryside is a landmark!

The location is along the road No. 343, which is about 2 hours from the Otaru station on the JR Hakodate main line towards Hakodate to the Konbu station. It is 2 miles to the hot springs from the station.

It doesn’t look like the typical place for a hot spring! It is surrounded by rice paddies and fields, but you will find a big sign written as “Kogane hot spring” standing by the side of the road to mark the entrance.

As you go on to the premises from the road to the back, there are facilities like a farmhouse garden. The green building with the sign “100 percent soba” on the left is the administrative building, so pay the bathing fee there. After paying the bathing fee, go to the bathhouse (wooden building on the right). The right side door is for women and the left side door is for men.

This space feels comfortable everywhere!

Originally they used the hot water for agricultural and personal home use, but it got a pretty well known by the neighbors and little by little he got more and more outside customers, and eventually grew into the current facilities.

The undressing room’s thick log beam construction is impressive. There is a curtain between undressing space and rest space, so people can not see the place to change from outside even if the window on the side of the parking lot is open. Both the men and women sides are made the same. Both have lockers (100 yen charge), a sink and a hairdryer.

Above is the hot water bath for men. The wall that borders with the female bath is shaped like Mt. Yotei!

This is the female bath side. Both the men and women’s sides have two washrooms, with shampoo and body soap provided. He mixes hot water from two sources one of 30℃ and one 50℃, which makes the temperature in the inner water around 42* C.

The outdoor bath has a garden view that is surrounded by mountains!

From the outdoor bath, you can watch Mt. Yotei and the mountains of Niseko on a sunny day. Even though it is a compact space, it has a pond and flowers are planted in a garden-like structure. There is even a duck in the back!

This is the male hot spring open-air bath. It is very open! The men and women outdoor baths are divided by rocks.

This is the outdoor bath on the female hot water side. On this side facing Mt. Yotei, there is a sleeping bath and a kettle bath (Goemonburo).

The bathing water of the female hot water and the kettle bath have large rocks between the large bathtub and the bathtub so that the bathing area cannot be seen from the big bathtub side.

Hot water is also excellent with warm boiled water with foam!

The water source is a combination of sodium – chloride – sulfate – hydrogen carbonate spring. This hot water makes for smooth and soft moist skin. Both the kettle bath and the sleeping water in the outdoor bath are poured from the bottom part of the spring. That means that hot water is fresh. The color is colorless and transparent.

The hot water of this golden hot spring actually contains carbon dioxide (carbon dioxide). Carbon dioxide gas is vaporized and easily lost, but the bathtub in the kettle bath and the sleeping bath, in particular have more carbon dioxide than other baths, so when you soak you are quickly wrapped in foam.

If you are immersed in a kettle bath while watching the mountain of Niseko, you quickly slip into your own world! Because sleeping hot water and a kettle bath are at temperatures just a little higher than body temperature, it is suitable also for a long soak. In addition, carbon dioxide absorbs into the skin and spreads the peripheral blood vessels, it makes blood flow better without putting a burden on the heart, so the body warms up well, even if it is lukewarm.

Enjoy his 100 percent hand-made soba too!

Mr. Hayashi’s handmade skills are not limited to constructing hot springs. Hayashi-san boasts 100 percent wheat hand-made soba that you can enjoy at his place!

When you order soba, if you tell the time you will rise from the bath, he will prepare your soba according to that time. The price is 1,100 yen with a bathing set. It is 1,400 yen in case you want a huge amount.

When going up from the hot spring and entering the management building, you will see the soba boiling. The soba is served until 3 pm, but because it is limited to twenty meals, it will not be available as soon as it is sold out.

There are sticky notes of about 7 cm square that visitors use to write their impressions and reviews of their experience stuck on the wall of the undressing room next to the washbasin. You can read just how popular this hot springs are!