Kusatsu Onsen Yubatake

The Yubatake is a long bed of wooden channels in the middle of Kusatsu where the hottest water in town runs out to cool before it reaches the inns. Tiled paths and stone railings run round it, and a cypress pavilion called Yukemuri-tei on one side rebuilds an Edo-period public bath, with a free foot bath and a basin for your hands.

Shirahata-no-yu, the biggest of the free public baths, sits on the edge of the Yubatake and draws from the Shirahata source. Chiyo-no-yu, two minutes away, keeps a separate room for the old Kusatsu bathing method beside its men's and women's tubs. Jizo-no-yu, three minutes off, runs slightly cloudy water from the Jizo source. These baths have no locking lockers and close for cleaning for part of each day.

JMA's account of the volcano lists Kusatsu's many fumaroles and hot springs among its features, and JMA keeps Kusatsu-Shirane under 24-hour watch, with two separate alert scales for the Yugama crater and for Motoshirane, and the town's own notices set what is open on the summit road. In winter the Shiga-Kusatsu road over the top closes from mid-November, and the summit area shuts with it.