Fukushima Fukushima City
A premier hidden hot spring inn in Tohoku, standing at 1,200 m, with 100% pure milky-white free-flowing natural spring baths
"Noji Onsen Hotel" is a secluded one-building inn with superb hot springs, representative of Tohoku, located on the cloud tops at an elevation of 1,200 meters on Washikurayama in Fukushima City, Fukushima Prefecture. Its pride and joy is a 100% pure free-flowing natural spring bath with no added water, no heating, and no circulation. When exposed to the air, the water turns into a beautiful milky-white cloudy bath. This gentle, smooth simple sulfur spring is renowned for its excellent benefits for atopic dermatitis, chronic eczema, and everyday stress. Inside the building are six distinct baths, including the all-hinoki "Senjyu no Yu" and "Tengu no Yu," where you can move between the indoor bath and the open-air bath without ever leaving the water. With gender rotation every 3 hours, you can enjoy luxurious hot-spring hopping around the clock. The women-only large bath is also equipped with a dry sauna, leading you to a refreshing outdoor air bath above the clouds with a view of the sea of clouds.
The traditional Senjyu no Yu is built entirely of beautiful, solid hinoki wood and has a dignified presence (gender rotation every 3 hours). The bath is divided into three sections, each set to a different temperature—hot, moderate, and lukewarm—so you can relax in the water at your own pace according to how you feel. A superb space filled with freshly drawn 100% pure water and the gentle scent of milky-white sulfur.
Tengu no Yu allows you to move from the indoor bath to the open-air bath without ever leaving the water (gender rotation every 3 hours; the tubs are made with ancient hinoki). Even in the cold winter months, you can transition gently to an open-air soak while feeling the outside air, without cooling off after the bath. This popular bath space is full of playful charm and warmth.
A spacious open-air bath with outstanding openness, where you soak while gazing up at the majestic nature of Kimenzan right before your eyes (gender rotation every 3 hours). Immerse yourself at leisure in the 100% free-flowing cloudy water with no added water or heating, and fully experience the rich beauty of the cloud-top seasons, from fresh spring greenery, summer starry skies, and autumn leaves blazing with color to the breathtaking snow-view bathing of winter.
An indoor large bath exclusively for male guests. Filled generously with soft, milky-white simple sulfur spring water flowing directly from the source at 100% purity, it offers a calm soaking experience with the warmth of wood and the feeling of a healing stay in a hot-spring cure resort. A famous spring with exceptionally strong warming effects, gently easing away daily fatigue and neuralgia from deep within the body.
An indoor large bath exclusively for female guests. This large bath is equipped with an authentic dry sauna for overnight guests only, allowing you to enjoy superb perspiration and bathing at the same time. After enjoying the smooth, skin-beautifying milky-white cloudy water, entering the sauna helps tighten your pores and leads to dewy, radiant skin, creating an exquisite bathing space.
A private open-air bath exclusively for female guests, adjacent to the women-only indoor bath Ogi no Yu. There is no need to worry at all about the men's bath rotation, and at any time of day or night you can enjoy 100% free-flowing milky-white water while surrounded by the clear air and beautiful greenery above the clouds. It is also a special place that delivers supreme refreshment as a post-sauna outdoor air bath space.
A comfortable, quiet authentic dry sauna installed only in the women-only large bath, Ogi no Yu (10:00-24:00, no TV, for overnight guests only). Heated by sauna stones with convection-style heat, the room is thoroughly hot, allowing you to work up a refreshing, deeply satisfying sweat. After leaving the sauna, you can enjoy a superb outdoor air bath above the clouds, taking in the crisp highland breeze unique to 1,200 meters above sea level, either by the edge of the adjacent open-air bath, Hagoromo no Yu, or in the changing room area.
[Large baths] Open 24 hours for bathing, except during maintenance and cleaning hours. Gender rotation takes place every 3 hours. [Sauna] 10:00-24:00 (women's large bath only). Day-use bathing is accepted on weekdays only from 10:40-13:00, adults 1,000 yen (closed for day use on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays; sauna not available for day-use guests).
Tsuchiyu Onsenkyo
An exquisite inn boasting a variety of baths and the latest automatic löyly sauna, overlooking the clear flow of the Arakawa River and a famous two-tier waterfall
Tsuchiyu Onsenkyo
Experience the ultimate totonou with an intensely cold continuous-flow stream-water cold plunge bath and self löyly
Fukushima
A superb highland resort where you can relax with the spectacular views of Lake Hibara and a natural hot spring that leaves your skin feeling beautiful
JAPAN'S FINEST ONSEN & SAUNA
The Finest Onsen & Sauna in Japan
61 SELECTIONS
Most of what we surveyed never even made it onto this site. This book is a further cut from what did. Our editor bathed in every onsen and sauna in it, and wrote only what they confirmed on the ground.
