Wado

Wado sits on the Wado mineral spring (和銅鉱泉), one of the Chichibu Nanayu, the region's seven old springs, said to date back to when the warlord Takeda Shingen opened the nearby Wado gold mine. The water is a plain, faintly sulfurous mineral spring rather than a scalding hot spring; locals once dabbed it on eye troubles and cuts, which is how it came to be called Yakushi no yu, the healing Buddha's bath. Two communal baths carry it: a rock bath called Iwakagami floored in local serpentine stone, and a cypress bath called Hiogi. Each pairs an indoor room with an outdoor bath overlooking the Yokose River and its maples, and the assignment for men and women swaps every day, so an overnight guest gets both. There's also a private rental bath with its own terrace, a private heated stone room for a gentler kind of warmth, and day-use bathing at midday for visitors not staying the night.