Makukawa Onsen Yoshikuraya Ryokan

Makugawa Onsen draws from two separate hot-spring sources, one for the indoor bath and one for the outdoor, so the two actually feel different. The outdoor bath sits inside old-growth forest, with white sulfur flecks settling in cloudy, sulfur-scented water. The indoor bath is built of hinoki cypress, colorless and mild on the skin. Both baths are gender-separated. The ryokan opened in 1891 and is still run by the same family, now in its fifth generation. It sits at 1,300 meters inside Bandai-Azuma National Park and belongs to the Nihon Hitou wo Mamoru Kai (日本秘湯を守る会), the association of Japan's secluded hot-spring inns. Heavy mountain snow closes the place for roughly half the year, so it only opens in the warmer months. Skunk cabbage blooms in the garden in spring, the beech and birch forest around the inn turns bright green in early summer, and a 25-minute walk from the door reaches Makudaki waterfall.