Yuzawa Toei Hotel

Yuzawa Toei Hotel is right beside the Yuzawa Kogen ski slopes, a few minutes' walk from Echigo-Yuzawa Station, with separate men's and women's bathing halls that each open onto a big rock-built outdoor bath, the men's side built with stone from Mt. Chokai (鳥海山), the women's from Mt. Hakkai (八海山), and spring water running down over the rocks like a small waterfall. Indoors the ceilings are high and the tubs marble, with a dry sauna on the men's side and an aroma mist sauna and jacuzzi on the women's. The water itself is soft and clear, known locally for leaving skin silky smooth. It's an older hotel from Yuzawa's ski-boom years, with big tatami rooms that look out over the slopes in winter or across the town from the hillside the rest of the year. The hotel's own spring was drilled in 1958; after Shinkansen construction cut into the flow of several nearby wells, it was folded into a shared supply that still pools water from multiple sources and pipes it out to hotels around town. Day-use bathing is open to passersby stopping in off the road.