Ōe Honke

Oe Honke is a large hot-spring hotel beside the Mukagawa (無加川) river in Onneyu Onsen, and it runs the fullest bath lineup in the area: an indoor bathhouse with a jacuzzi tub and a reclining bath, a natural-stone rotenburo, a cold plunge, and a sauna with automatic loyly every twenty minutes. The sulfur water is kept flowing fresh (kakenagashi), with nothing added, heated, filtered, or recirculated. Locals call it Bihaku no Yu (美白の湯), the skin-smoothing water that gives the inn its name. A family bath exists too, but it's reserved for overnight guests only, by advance booking. Guests describe an older building that still carries some grandeur from an earlier era of Japanese hot-spring hotels, big buffet dinners, and rooms that look out over the river or the surrounding mountains.