Yachi Onsen

Yachi Onsen is an old wooden ryokan on the flank of Mt. Hakkoda, with the feel of a lone inn in the mountains. Its bathhouses are separate for men and women, and each side has two tubs: Kami-no-yu (上の湯), the upper bath, which runs warmer and turns milky white with sulfur, and Shimo-no-yu (下の湯), the lower bath, cooler and clear, fed by water that bubbles straight up through the floor of the tub itself. The spring water is kept flowing fresh, and its sulfur smell drifts through the corridor on the way to the baths. Day-use soaks are welcome alongside overnight stays. The inn is counted among Japan's three secluded hot springs, and it wears that history: it says its spring was found more than 400 years ago, and old photographs line the hallway to the baths. It sits beside an alpine marsh, and in winter wild martens come out and can be watched from the dining room window. One annex room, Genji-no-ma (源氏の間), is known as where the writer Setouchi Jakucho worked on volume nine of her Tale of Genji translation.