Hoshi Onsen Chōjukan

The Hosokan bath at Hoshi Onsen Chojukan is a high-ceilinged Meiji-era wooden hall that looks much as it did when it was built in the 1880s. Its most unusual quality is that the spring water rises visibly through the pebble floor of the bath, so you can watch it bubble up from below. The bath is mixed (konyoku), and the atmosphere tends to be peaceful; nobody seems to pay much attention to anyone else. The inn has been here for about 150 years, set in forest beside a small mountain river, and the sense of time standing still is genuine. There is also a women's indoor bath and a rotenburo for other times.