A paid web magazine, chosen by one editor on foot · Issue 01
Japan's finest onsen and sauna, in 65 places.
Japan has thousands of onsen and sauna, and every list looks the same. Where do you spend a trip you may only take once? From the places I bathed in myself and those I chose through my own reporting, I kept only the ones I would go back to — and introduce them one by one.
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Foreword
I Want to Visit Again. Only the Places That Made Me Feel That Way.
Japan has countless onsen and saunas.
Some are famous, while others are still little known. There are different onsen and saunas in the mountains, by the sea, and in the cities.
But if you are traveling in Japan, I do not think that “any place will do.”
If you have gone to the trouble of spending the time to visit Japan, I want you to do more than just soak in an onsen and experience a sauna.
I want you to have an experience you will never forget.
I created this magazine for that purpose.
I love onsen and sauna, and while traveling all over Japan, I have visited countless facilities.
Some places I visited because they were famous. Some I went to because someone recommended them. Some I discovered by chance.
But not all of them stayed with me.
There are many wonderful facilities.
At the same time,
“I want to come back here again before I die”
is something I can honestly say about very few places.
The moment my body sank into an onsen.
The moment I stepped out of the sauna and was enveloped by the wind.
The time I spent gazing at the mountains or the sea before me, thinking of nothing at all.
Even after leaving the facility, that experience remains somewhere in the body.
And years later, it still comes back to me in a sudden moment.
Those are the places I chose for this magazine.
For every facility featured here, I went there myself, entered the onsen myself, and experienced the sauna myself.
Not a single place was chosen just from photos or reputation.
I went there in person, experienced it with my own body, and kept only the facilities where I could honestly think,
“The time spent here is something I will never forget.”
That is why I can confidently introduce these places to you.
This magazine does not simply gather “good onsen” or “popular saunas.”
It selects places that offer scenery you can see only here.
Onsen you can taste only here.
Silence you can feel only here.
Places where the land, the environment, and the facility come together to create an experience that can be had nowhere else.
If you want to truly experience high-quality onsen and sauna in Japan.
If you want to create moments during your journey that stay in your heart for a long time.
If that is what you are hoping for, then this magazine is sure to help you.
As you turn the pages and look at the photographs,
“I want to go there”
will likely grow from one place to the next.
Before long, you will find yourself imagining that you are inside the photographs.
Yourself soaking in this open-air bath.
Yourself stepping out of this sauna and gazing at this scenery.
Yourself breathing in the air of that place and feeling the wind.
And if you actually go there, experiences that cannot be fully conveyed through photographs alone await you.
If this magazine can connect you with the 65 facilities featured here, nothing would make me happier.
Years after your journey has ended,
“I’m really glad I went to that place”
I hope that at least one experience from this collection will become something you remember like that.
Contents
- Yulax · Kumamoto
- Kanigoten · Saga
- Saga no Yudokoro KOMOREBI · Saga
- Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel · SagaFree in the preview
- OND SAUNA · Saga
- OND HOTEL · Saga
- Wellbe Fukuoka · Fukuoka
- Iyo No Tojiba Kisuke no Yu · Ehime
- Shimanami Onsen Kisuke no Yu · Ehime
- Golden Time Takamatsu · Kagawa
- Takamatsu Pokapoka Onsen · Kagawa
- Naruto Natural Hot Spring Aratae no Yu · Tokushima
- Tosa Mochizuki Onsen Himewako no Yu · Kochi
- Hotel Kawakyu, Nanki Shirahama Onsen · Wakayama