Otaru Asari Classe Hotel

The rotenburo are rock-lined and gender-separated, two baths for women (one closes over winter) and one for men. The indoor bath has a wide washing area, an L-shaped two-tier sauna that holds around ten people, and a mild-temperature cold bath. The spring water is clear and salty, close to seawater in feel. Eleven of the guest rooms, six with an open-air bath and five with an indoor one, draw the same water into a private tub. The hotel itself is a big resort property in the hills above Otaru, at Asarigawa Onsen, with 127 rooms; every room looks over the Asari forest, and some open onto the mountains behind it. Day-use bathing is available to non-guests too, and in the evenings a pianist plays in the lobby.