Yapponpon no Yu

The open-air bath looks out at the hills around Koka, with mountain views by day and stars after dark. The indoor bath is split into two depths, a half-body soak and a full-body one, and there's a separate cold bath and sauna alongside it. The spring water itself is smooth and silky on the skin. For something more private, two family baths can be booked separately from the main bathing area. Beyond the baths, a ganbanyoku rock-bed room lined with bakuhanseki and germanium stone is built for a slow, sweaty lie-down to healing music. The bathhouse is the day-use wing of the Diamond Shiga golf resort, so it has that resort's easy, well-kept feel rather than a rustic hot-spring inn's.