Obara Spa Hotel Izumiya

Obara Onsen Hotel Izumiya sits above the Shiraishi River, built around a communal bath big enough to hold up to 100 people at once. A spacious rotenburo looks out over the river and the wooded valley, its view changing with the seasons: fresh green in spring, red maple leaves in autumn. The men's and women's sides swap on a rotation, so which bath you get can depend on the day. There's a cup by the spring water too, for those who want to drink it. Obara Onsen itself is said to have been found by Hitachibo Kaison (常陸坊海尊), a retainer of Minamoto no Yoshitsune (源義経), and the inn has some 400 years of history here. It's a quiet, old-fashioned place at the end of a narrow mountain road, the kind of ryokan where dinner and breakfast are brought to your room.