Kannon Onsen

Kannon Onsen is a hot-spring ryokan set in the hills above Shimoda, built on its own alkaline spring that's mild enough to drink and known for leaving skin smooth. The complex has four separate guest buildings and 55 rooms in total; in most of them the bath is right in the room, and in the newer Pygmalion wing every room opens onto its own outdoor tub, several with a view toward the Amagi mountains. The shared bathhouse adds a sauna, a hinoki-scented soaking room, a massage-jet bath, and a foot bath among the trees, with day-use bathing offered separately under the Kannon Principle (観音プリンシプル) name on its own hours. The ryokan traces back to the 1960s, when the founder is said to have dreamed of the bodhisattva Kannon pointing him to the water; a small statue that turned up during the digging is still enshrined at the entrance, and the surrounding forest fills with fireflies in early summer.