Japanese Inn Koyo

Koyo is a large ryokan on high ground in Kaminoyama Onsen, with two big bathing floors that swap between women's and men's hours through the day. The eighth-floor bath has an open-air section looking out over the Zao mountains and the town's night lights, while the first-floor bath, Benibana-buro, is built around wood barrel tubs with a traditional Japanese feel. There are saunas on both bathing floors, with a cold sauna on the ground floor. A reservable private outdoor bath on the third floor gives couples or families their own soak, and many rooms have their own half-outdoor bath filled with the same spring water. It's soft and smooth on the skin, what the inn calls bijin no yu (美人の湯), 'beauty-skin water.' Benibana-buro takes its name from the safflower dye that Kaminoyama once shipped to Kyoto by trading ship, a trade that also carried Kyoto speech and customs back to the town. Koyo has placed in the top ten of a professionally judged ranking of Japan's best hotels and ryokan for more than 40 years running, and its lobby galleries display raku-yaki pieces painted by well-known figures over the years. Visitors can try painting a piece of their own during the stay.