Hotel Taisetsu

Hotel Taisetsu is a big resort hotel built into the gorge at the top of Sounkyo, a hot-spring town inside Daisetsuzan National Park. Instead of one shared bath it runs three separate bathing halls across its wings: an outdoor bath on the gorge side, where morning mist drifts over the canyon below; a top-floor hall in the west wing with wide views of the Daisetsu mountains and a self-service sauna with a cold plunge; and a European-styled bath in the east wing, brick and stained glass, kept a bit hotter than the other two. The spring itself is a plain sulfur water, piped straight from the source and only cut with extra water to bring the heat down, never recirculated. The gorge-side bath can also be booked as a private soak for a group, and the hotel's top room category comes with its own open-air bath fed from the same source.