Hotel Yumoto Hakone

The hotel draws on four different springs from the hills above the Sugumo-gawa (須雲川), in Hakone-Yumoto, one of Hakone's old seven hot-spring towns. The water itself is colorless and clear, with a light salty edge, and it's known locally as bijin-no-yu (美人の湯) for how smooth it leaves the skin. Men and women each get their own indoor bath and rotenburo: the men's, kajika-no-yu (かじかの湯), is named for a creature that lives only in clear mountain streams and lines up pools at several different temperatures, while the women's, ajisai-no-yu (あじさいの湯), opens onto a wisteria trellis and a hydrangea garden. Guest rooms look out over Yusaka-yama (湯坂山), and even the in-room tubs run on the hotel's own onsen water. Afterward there's free drinks, karaoke, table tennis, yukata to borrow and a rooftop pool, and a stretch of the old Hakone highway's stone paving runs along the ground floor as a nod to the area's history.