Kiriake Onsen Yukiakari

Yukiakari is the only inn at the far end of Akiyamago (秋山郷), the remote valley straddling Nagano and Niigata, set right on the Uonogawa river where wild iwana char live. It has two indoor baths and an open-air bath guests can also reserve by the hour for a private soak, plus a natural hot spring in the riverbed a two-minute walk away, where you dig your own bathing pit in the gravel. The water is soft and only faintly sulfurous, and it keeps flowing straight from the spring. Peaks over 2,000 meters, including Mt. Naeba, ring the valley, and the drive in follows a long, winding mountain road, so getting here takes some effort. Meals follow the season, foraged mountain vegetables and mushrooms, game in winter, and there's a wood fire to sit by when snow piles up outside.