Ryujin Onsen

Ryujin is counted with Kawanaka in Gunma and Yunokawa in Shimane as one of the three waters of beauty in Japan. The spring is sodium bicarbonate, which dissolves surface keratin and leaves skin unmistakably smooth — the effect is immediate and is the entire reason for the reputation. The Kishu lords built a retreat here and the village has been a bathing place for centuries.

It sits in a deep valley on the Hidaka river in the mountains between Tanabe and Koyasan, along the Koya-Ryujin Skyline, which is one of the best mountain drives in western Japan. The Motoyu is the village's own bathhouse: undiluted source water, changed daily, open from seven in the morning to nine at night, ¥800, and it does not close. There are a handful of inns and nothing else.