Pension Bergland

Pension Bergland is a small, 11-room guesthouse on a quiet hillside street on the edge of Kusatsu, about 20 minutes on foot from Yubatake (湯畑). Both the indoor bath and the outdoor rotenburo run on the town's Bandaiko (万代鉱) spring water, kept flowing fresh, split by gender, with no mixed bathing and no option to book either bath privately. An outdoor bath is unusual for a pension this size to have at all; this one sits among trees and turns into a snow-viewing bath in winter, while the indoor bath opens onto it through a large window for much the same open feeling. The baths are compact, more a soak for two or three than a grand rotenburo, and the water carries Kusatsu's usual sharp edge that leaves skin feeling clean. The pension sits above the town on Sukuriba-dori (スクリバー通り), removed enough from the bustle that south-facing rooms look out toward Mount Asama on clear days. Dinner is homemade Western food built around the owner's chicken stewed in tomato, served in the ground-floor dining room. The name, German for mountain country, sums up what people come here for: the spring and the view, taken slowly.