Okuyama Onsen

Drove to Okuyama Onsen yesterday — it was on the reserve list for the Shizuoka onsen trip, on the border of Yamanashi and Shizuoka. From the highway it's about 25 minutes on narrow mountain-forest roads, the last 6km the road only goes to this onsen and a camp nearby, meaning maybe ten cars a day total. Photos along the way in the next message — worth driving there just for the scenery alone. Baths indoors and outdoors, water is strongly alkaline (pH almost 10!), pumped from underground. The main highlight is of course the large rotenburo — in summer they keep it at 37°C, so you can sit there all day. The view matches — forest, mountains, birds singing. There's a sauna and cold water. As a verdict, it's well worth a special trip for half a day or a full day, or just to camp. I'm probably a bit spoiled by nature, but the views there are incredible, awesome place.