Hotel Nankaiso

Hotel Nankaiso is a large oceanview property at the southern tip of Chiba's Boso Peninsula, in Shirahama. It draws its own hot spring water into indoor communal baths, salty and warming, though there is no rotenburo or sauna. The men's and women's sides swap by the next morning. A seafront foot bath lets you look out at the Pacific and the Nojima-zaki lighthouse (野島埼灯台) toward evening. The rocks around the indoor baths are known locally as Kudori Rock (くどりの岩), tied to an old fisherman's legend about steering home by their shape, and the hotel today is known for its seafood buffet dinner.