Kumanokawa Onsen Oyado Yumechidori

Yumechidori is a small five-room ryokan in Kamikumakawa, Fuji-cho, Saga City, tucked into the Kumanokawa hot spring hamlet where the Kase River cuts into the Sefuri Mountains. Local tradition dates the discovery of Kumanokawa Onsen to 821, when the monk Kukai (Kobo Daishi), passing through on his travels around Japan, is said to have noticed an injured plover bathing in the water again and again before flying off restored. The inn takes its name from that plover legend, and in 1966 the surrounding area was designated a National Health Resort Hot Spring. Despite being only about twenty minutes by car from central Saga, the setting is quiet, green and riverside.

The source, named Kumanokawa Daini Gensen, is classified as a simple weak radioactive spring (hypotonic, alkaline). Its radon content of 34.62 Mache units per kilogram is the highest in Kyushu, the water emerges at roughly 38 degrees Celsius, and the pH is 9.3. The result is a colourless, silky lukewarm bath of the kind Japanese bathers call nuruyu, and the inn states that the water is served free-flowing from the source. It has long been valued both as a cure bath and as a beauty bath, with listed indications including gout, arteriosclerosis, hypertension and chronic skin conditions.

Bathing facilities comprise the men's indoor bath Uzura no Yu and the women's indoor bath Tsuru no Yu, plus three private rentable baths: the tatami-floored cypress bath Yamadori no Yu, the semi-open-air stone bath Kawasemi no Yu, and the oval cypress bath Fukuro no Yu. Day-trip bathing runs from 10:00 to 19:00 with last admission at 18:00, costing 880 yen for adults on weekdays and 990 yen on weekends and holidays. The inn closes every Wednesday and offers 20 free parking spaces. Its signature meals centre on handmade tofu, including zaru-yose tofu made from Saga soybeans and Hokkaido black soybeans.