Fudo Hot Spring

Fudo Hot Spring is a small day-use bath tucked into the hills of Kitashirakawa, on the mountain road toward Mt. Hiei, run by a family that greets each guest at the door. There's a single indoor bath, a compact tub that only holds a handful of people at once, drawn from a natural radium spring; the water is soft enough that some of it is served for drinking, and the bathroom is kept closed up to hold in the steam. You're free to go back in as many times as you like during opening hours, and afterward there's a rest area for tea, a nap, or a meal, since the attached dining room cooks with the same radium water, including a cold soba dish people come back for. Around the 28th of most months, the hall next door holds a goma (護摩) fire ritual. The building has a Showa era feel, built into the slope of the valley, and it's become something of a pilgrimage stop for readers of Tomihiko Morimi's novels and, more recently, fans of a film shot inside.