Koto no Yado Arakawa-so

Kousagi no Yado Arakawa-so, at Takase Onsen (高瀬温泉) by the Arakawa river in Sekikawa, built its main bath around a single huge cypress log that stood for over two thousand years before an earthquake or lightning strike brought it down whole. The wood is soft underfoot and still gives off a faint cypress scent, and even the washing area is floored in tatami, so feet stay warm through the winter. The spring water is clear and lightly salty, and the tub keeps overflowing with plenty of it. Two reservable private baths, one lit by a skylight and one with both an indoor and outdoor tub, run on kakenagashi spring water. The spring's own story goes back some three hundred years, to a farmer named Sobei (総兵衛) who noticed a hawk returning each morning to the same spot on the riverbank and found it dipping a wound in hot water bubbling out of the gravel. Rabbits, tied to the guardian mountain Kousagi-san (光兎山), turn up throughout the building as a running theme.