Kawajiri Hot Spring Hottoyuda

Hottoyuda is a small public bath built right into Hottoyuda Station on the JR Kitakami Line: travelers waiting for a connection can step straight from the platform into the bathhouse. Everything is indoor, one bathing room with three tubs graded by temperature, a shallow one built for lying back in, a middle one, and a properly hot one, filled with onsen water that runs clear with a faint salty taste and is kept flowing fresh from the source. There is no rotenburo, sauna or cold plunge, just the tubs, about seven wash stations, and a free rest room upstairs for bathers. A kashikiri bath can also be booked separately for a soak on your own. The station building is wooden, with a pointed roof and a clock tower that suits the mountain scenery around it, and the bathing room has an odd little feature to match: a railway signal on the wall that switches through blue, yellow and red to flag an approaching train, so someone can stay in the water until the last minute before a departure.