SHIONOMARU

The hotel's single large communal bath draws on local mineral spring water that many visitors say leaves the skin feeling smooth; the area has long been valued for toji (湯治), extended therapeutic bathing. Indoors, the bath floor is laid with tatami mats, a soft, non-slip surface that's comfortable for children and older guests. Outside there is a barrel sauna, with lounge chairs for resting in the open air between rounds. Shionomaru builds its theme around the Murakami Suigun (村上水軍), the medieval seafaring clans who once held the Kurushima Strait in the Seto Inland Sea, woven into an otherwise modern hotel with banquet halls for group stays. It sits in Yunoura, an onsen area in Imabari designated a Kokumin Hoyo Onsenchi (国民保養温泉地), a national health-resort hot spring, the first in Shikoku to receive that status from Japan's Ministry of the Environment.