---
title: The former Yamato-yu bathhouse
url: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/notes/former-yamato-yu-bathhouse/
lang: en
journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/onomichi-2/
---

# The former Yamato-yu bathhouse

A little of each town’s story　/　Onomichi, Hiroshima

A former public bathhouse in the Onomichi Hondori arcade, with a concrete facade and an arched entrance. It is said to have opened around the end of the Meiji era. After its long run as a bathhouse the building housed a souvenir shop and cafe called Yu-yu, now closed; a dumpling restaurant keeping the bathhouse's name has since moved in. I only admired it from outside.

1-3-20 Tsuchido, Onomichi, Hiroshima

## This moment in the journey: Shopping arcades along the railway

Just outside the shop ran the railway line, and a yellow train crossed right in front of me. At the entrance to the arcade hung a sign reading Center-gai. Onomichi's main street is a shopping arcade about 1.6 kilometers long, running east to west between the sea and the hills.

I walked under the glass roof. A freight train slipped past at the end of an alley, and I passed a former public bathhouse that still carries the name Yamato-yu, said to have opened around the end of the Meiji era. Beyond the awning of the Ekimae shopping street, a hillside packed with houses came into view.

Onomichi is famous as the setting for many movies and anime. Just walking around, you keep meeting scenes you have seen somewhere before.

![The former bathhouse building bearing the name Yamato-yu](https://karigurashijourney.com/img/onomichi-2/s20-1200.jpg)
- Sources: https://4travel.jp/dm_shisetsu/11170193
- Sources: https://hamoni.jp/area/hiroshima/onimichi/onomichi/shops/chinese

Read this scene in the full journey: https://karigurashijourney.com/en/episodes/onomichi-2/