Yamashiokan

Yamashiokan is a small ryokan in Kashio (鹿塩), a mountain hamlet in Oshika village, southern Nagano, built around Kashio Onsen, a rare, very salty spring. In Tennenseki no Yu (天然石の湯), the natural-stone bath, one tub is filled straight from the source and left unheated, so bathers move between it and a warmed tub to work up a proper glow. The water itself is faintly sulfurous and leaves skin feeling smooth rather than tight. The other bath, Hinoki no Yu (檜の湯), is lined in hinoki and has a reclining tub said to go easy on the heart. There's no rotenburo, but the windows are large enough to take in the mountains through the seasons, and both baths are shared, alternating between men and women each day. Local legend traces the name Kashio, "deer salt", to deer once seen licking at salty water in these hills. The inn still boils the same spring water down into mountain salt on-site, sold in its shop and used in a kitchen built around local game such as venison, boar, and river fish. It belongs to Nihon Hitou wo Mamoru Kai (日本秘湯を守る会), the association that looks after Japan's secluded hot-spring inns.