Yumori Tanakaya

Three hundred steps down from the ryokan buildings, a series of riverside rotenburo (露天風呂) sit at the bottom of a narrow gorge in Shiobara Oami. The mixed bath is down there among the rocks by the stream, a proper descent into the mountain. The water is a sulfate spring, historically known as a healing bath for wounds. The inn itself is polished and upmarket, which makes the rawness of those gorge baths a genuine contrast.