Spa Hotel Alpina Hida Takayama

Alpina is one of the few hotels in central Takayama with its own natural hot spring, pumped up to the top floor. The ninth-floor bathhouse has an indoor bath with a view and a lying-down bath, plus an open-air bath and small tub baths (tsubo-yu, つぼ湯) outside. The outdoor side is glassed in, so you can soak while looking out over the Takayama townscape and, on clear days, the Kita Alps. There's no sauna and no reserved private bath, and the men's and women's sides stay separate. Bathing is for hotel guests only, no day-use visits. Rooms and the lobby are plain, business-hotel style; the hot spring on the top floor is the unusual part. It's three minutes on foot from Takayama Station, with the old town a short walk away.