Tate Shina Kumpū

The hot spring water runs hot at the source and is tempered with cold water rather than left to cool on its own, and guests describe the indoor bath as smooth on the skin even though it only fits a handful of people at the washing stations. The ryokan has a single outdoor bath, plus a free private bath open around the clock, roomy enough for a small group but without its own shower stalls. Several of the room types add a semi-open-air or open-air tub of their own, so those guests can soak without leaving the room. Set in a patch of forest in the Tateshina highlands, the inn is quiet enough that guests mention birdsong through the walls and deer occasionally wandering the grounds. People keep coming back as much for that calm and the staff's warmth as for the bath itself.