Kokumin Shukusha Keizanso

Kokumin Shukusha Keizanso is an 18-room public lodge above the Kinu river in the Oku-Kinu backcountry, part of the Kawamata hot spring area in Nikko. Its own source feeds separate large baths for men and women, each with an indoor tub and an open-air one, plus a free hinoki (檜) cypress bath right at the riverside that stay-guests can use anytime, no reservation needed. The water is clear with a faint sulfur scent, gentle on the skin and warming. Rooms are plain tatami, looking out on nothing but the Oku-Kinu mountains, forest and the stream below. The inn is known locally for its night sky: clean mountain air and no city lights make the stars unusually vivid from the riverside bath, something guests come back to mention. It has the feel of an old-fashioned, no-frills mountain inn rather than a resort.