Photo by 掬茶, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
🇯🇵 Japan · Fukui Prefecture, Hokuriku
♨ Temperature
65°C
⛰ Altitude
10 m
⚗ pH
7.5
💧 TDS
2200 mg/L
🌊 Flow rate
74 regulated wells
📅 Established
Meiji period (1883)
✓ Verified on 2026-07-22
Awara Onsen sits in the flat coastal lowlands of Awara City, Fukui Prefecture, on Japan's Sea of Japan coast. The spring has an unusually specific origin story: in 1883, farmers digging irrigation wells in the rice paddies struck warm, salty water instead. The accidental discovery led to the rapid development of one of Hokuriku's most important onsen resort towns. The water is a sodium-calcium chloride type — saline, slightly alkaline, and emerging across a wide temperature range (33.5 to 77.5°C) depending on which of the town's 74 regulated wells is accessed. Each of the approximately 30 ryokans manages its own wells, giving each establishment a slightly distinct mineral profile within the same geological system. The town is known in Japan as 'the inner parlour of the Kansai region,' reflecting its traditional role as the onsen destination of choice for travellers from Osaka and Kyoto heading along the Hokuriku coast. Awara's position on the former Echizen Railway line, and now well-served by the Hokuriku Shinkansen corridor, has maintained its accessibility as a domestic resort. The flat rice-paddy landscape surrounding the town, the contrast between the agricultural setting and the ryokan district, and the Awara Onsen Festival each summer are defining features of the destination.
| Sodium | 520 mg/L |
| Chloride | 680 mg/L |
| Calcium | 145 mg/L |
| Potassium | 38 mg/L |
| Bicarbonate | 120 mg/L |
| Silica | 32 mg/L |
Awara Onsen is one of the major onsen resorts of the Hokuriku region, historically serving as the primary thermal destination for travellers from the Kansai region (Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe). The Echizen Railway Awara Yunomachi Station, which serves the town, is a registered tourist landmark. Fukui Prefecture, which consistently ranks highest in Japanese national happiness surveys, lists Awara Onsen as a central contributor to regional wellbeing and identity.
The accidental discovery of Awara's waters in 1883 — farmers drilling for irrigation struck a hot saline spring instead — became one of the signature stories of Meiji-era Japan's rapid transformation. Within two decades, the rice paddies had given way to a thriving ryokan town. The annual Awara Onsen Festival (held each August) is one of Fukui's most popular summer events, drawing visitors for traditional dance, lanterns, and fireworks over the onsen district.
Awara's 74 wells are collectively managed under a municipal water allocation system that regulates extraction volumes to prevent depletion of the geothermal aquifer. Each ryokan's well output is monitored, and the town has maintained stable water temperatures and flow rates since formal regulation began. The surrounding rice-paddy agricultural landscape is preserved as both heritage and ecological buffer around the resort district.
Phone+81-776-78-6767
Websiteawara.info
AddressAwara Onsen, Awara City, Fukui Prefecture 910-4100, Japan