Yubara Onsen Sunayu and Dam

This camera covers the entrance to Sunayu and the wall of Yubara Dam, directly below it on the Asahi River. It is the second Yubara Onsen angle on the site, and a very different one from the view over the town.

Sunayu is an open-air bath in the riverbed itself, at the foot of the dam. Hot water rises through the sand under the pools — which is where the name comes from, sand and hot water — and it is free to use and open around the clock. It is mixed bathing in a natural riverbed rather than a built facility, which makes it unusual even among Japanese open-air baths.

The dam behind it was completed in 1955 and gives the scene its backdrop: a concrete wall rising straight out of the valley with bathers in the river below. The contrast between the two is the reason this angle exists as a separate camera.