蔵王温泉 岩清水料理の宿 季の里

Zao Kinosato keeps two very different baths apart from each other. Only one is a real onsen: Daikichi-no-yu (代吉の湯), a semi-open-air bathhouse in its own small building about 30 meters from the main lodge. The water runs straight from the spring with nothing added, milky white, sulfurous, and strongly acidic, so acidic that soap and shampoo won't lather in it. A foot bath sits right alongside it, open into the evening for a soak in the night air. The large bath back in the main building, Tsukimisou (月見草) for men and Hanamisou (花見草) for women, is different: heated groundwater, alkaline and clear rather than onsen water, but open around the clock, and it leaves skin feeling smooth afterward. The ryokan itself is a quiet, 20-room place beside Shiginoyachi marsh (鴫の谷地沼) on the edge of the Zao Onsen town, with rooms looking out over forest or the surrounding mountains. Dinner is a kaiseki spread built around Yamagata ingredients, including Yamagata beef, and the whole building is non-smoking.