Ōmuro Onsen Spa MakibaNoYu

Makiba no Yu sits on a hilltop above the Chikuma River in Matsushiro, a short drive from central Nagano city. The spring water is topped up fresh every day rather than recirculated, and locals know it as a bijin no yu (美人の湯), water said to leave the skin feeling soft. There are two separate bathing areas, Kino-yu (木の湯) and Iwano-yu (岩の湯), each with an indoor and an open-air tub, and they swap between the men's and women's sides every Tuesday. The open-air tubs look out over the Zenkoji plain toward the North Alps. The spring itself is a fairly recent find: about twenty years ago, steam started rising from the ground while a landscaper was working the site, and the water hasn't stopped flowing since. The area was once Omuro-maki (大室牧), pasture where horses were raised for the imperial court, which is where the name Makiba, meaning pasture, comes from. The sauna uses bakuhanseki (麦飯石) stones, and you wear sauna clothes or a rented robe rather than bathing nude. There's a small cafeteria and a produce stand by the entrance selling vegetables from local farms.