Yukawa Onsen Yamado

Yamado is a small inn of just 12 rooms standing beside a mountain stream in Nishiwaga Town, Iwate Prefecture. Yukawa Onsen is built on three hot spring sources and has long served as a therapeutic bathing retreat for visitors from both Iwate and Akita. The name Yamado comes from a local word for a skilled mountain worker, and the inn was named one of Japan's ten best small inns by travel professionals in 2017.

The water comes from the No. 1 well of one of these sources, a sodium chloride-sulfate spring at 51.4 degrees Celsius with a neutral pH of 7.7 and about 1,015 mg/kg of dissolved minerals. It is used source-fed (kake-nagashi): fresh water flows into each tub through a siphon system and drains from the bottom of the bath.

Every one of the 12 rooms has its own semi-open-air bath filled with this source water, and there is no communal large bath. Beside the stream, a private open-air bath called Yuba Issun can be reserved in 30-minute slots by overnight guests. Day-use bathing is not offered, so the inn is for overnight stays only. Meals use vegetables from the inn's own farm and local mountain ingredients, the whole building is smoke-free, and 20 free parking spaces are available.