Horoka Onsen Yumoto Kanoya

Kanoya is a single remote inn deep in the primeval forest of the Higashi-Taisetsu region, in Horoka, Kamishihoro Town, Hokkaido, at the eastern edge of Daisetsuzan National Park. Its predecessor, Takaya Onsen, is said to have been found in 1928, and a bathing inn was operating here by the late 1940s. After a fire in 1964 the inn was rebuilt on its present site, and although the forestry settlement that once surrounded Horoka Station on the Shihoro Line has vanished, Kanoya alone remains in business.

Four privately owned springs rise on the property. The posted spring analysis certificates describe all of them as sodium chloride-bicarbonate springs (hypotonic, neutral, high-temperature), with pH between 6.7 and 7.2 and source temperatures from 58.0 to 63.3 degrees Celsius; one source flows naturally at 33 liters per minute. The water is served free-flowing without chlorine-based disinfectants, and the baths are known in-house as the sodium, iron and calcium tubs, each differing in color and feel.

The indoor bath house holds three source tubs plus a pounding-water bath, and together with the open-air bath is essentially mixed gender, though a women-only indoor bath is provided. Day-trip bathing costs 800 yen for adults and 400 yen for elementary school children and younger, from 10:00 to 18:00 in summer (May to October) and 10:00 to 16:00 in winter (November to April). Overnight stays are room-only with no meals served, and reservations are taken by telephone only. There is no mobile phone coverage in the area.