Hotel Shoutou

Hotel Shoutou sits right on Chidori-ga-hama beach in Minamichita, on Utsumi Onsen, with its bath up on the seventh floor looking straight out over Ise Bay. Men and women each have an open-air bath alongside an indoor bath, and the water itself runs faintly cloudy with a greenish tint and a touch of salt on the skin. Sunset from up there turns both sky and sea red. Two smaller baths, Okichi-no-yu (お吉の湯) for couples and Ryujin-no-yu (竜神の湯) for families, can be booked separately. Day-use bathing and a walk-in lunch are both available without staying the night. The rest of the hotel has the feel of a full-service beach property: banquet halls, a karaoke lounge and a small shop sit alongside its mostly Japanese-style guest rooms.