Ochimizu no yu Tsutaya

The bath here splits into an indoor hall and a separate open-air rotenburo, both divided for men and women, plus two named private baths, Basho-no-yu and Buna-no-yu, that day visitors can also book by the hour. The water is clear and faintly salty, leaves your skin smooth, and keeps you warm well after you step out; from the tubs you look toward the beech forest and the ridge running from Mt. Gassan to Mt. Yudono. A separate building holds what the inn calls its fuke-buro (蒸け風呂), literally a steam bath: it revives Japan's original style of bathing in steam, tied to the mountain ascetic (yamabushi) practice of Dewa Sanzan, and now runs a Finnish-style sauna where you pour your own loyly of Mt. Gassan kuromoji water. The inn itself has stood for four hundred years in Shizu, a hamlet that once lodged pilgrims and yamabushi on their way to Dewa Sanzan. Lunch includes soba made with mountain vegetables gathered on Gassan.