Sansien

Sansien is a kokumin shukusha, a public-run inn, in Shikano, an old castle town at the foot of Mt. Washigamine (鷲峰山) in Tottori, said to take its name from the Sengoku-era warrior Yamanaka Shikanosuke. Bathing is split across a garden rotenburo, one pool ringed by big rounded stones (Oishi-no-yu, 大石の湯) and another facing the inn's Japanese garden (Hori-no-yu, 堀の湯); a plain, old-fashioned indoor bath; and a rooftop bath named Amanogawa (天の川, "Milky Way"), with jet water and a view toward Mt. Washigamine, its men's and women's sides named Hikoboshi and Orihime after the Tanabata legend of the cowherd and weaver separated by the Milky Way. A family bath can be reserved for private use, and a free footbath by the parking lot is open to anyone passing through town, not only guests. The spring itself is mild and faintly alkaline, known locally as onna-mizu (おんな水, "women's water") for how smooth it leaves the skin. Overnight guests can bathe around the clock, with the indoor bath and rotenburo swapping between men and women each night. Meals draw on San'in ingredients such as seasonal seafood, and the town around the inn is quiet rice-paddy country.