Hotel Ambient Azumino

The shared bathing area has two separate bathhouses, one built around hinoki wood, the other stone, plus a half-open-air bath facing the Northern Alps. There is a dry sauna with auto-loyly and a gentler mist sauna, with an outdoor-air rest spot nearby. The water is piped in from the Nakabusa valley. Guests staying in the one-building cottages get their own onsen bath in the unit, and some cottage types add a private open-air bath as well. The resort sits among pine woods at the foot of the Northern Alps in Azumino, and was renamed from AMBIENT Azumino to its current name. It reads as a quiet, low-key stay rather than a lavish one, the kind of place where wild monkeys sometimes wander past in spring.