Shirabu Onsen Nakaya Annex Fudokaku

Fudokaku sits along the Mogami River headwaters in Shirabu Onsen, a small mountain resort that has been drawing bathers since 1312. The ryokan's signature bath is the Olympic Bath (オリンピック風呂), a deliberately narrow indoor pool stretching 18 meters in the men's section and 13 in the women's, designed so that every bather sits facing the gorge. The name dates to 1964, when the bath opened to mark the Tokyo Olympics and the inn later received the stone torch platform used in the Yamagata leg of the relay. The current bath is the second generation, rebuilt in 1991. Outside, Fudokaku has the only open-air bath at Shirabu, with the same gorge and forested valley below. The water is clear.