Furuyu Onsen Ogiya

Ogiya is a small inn of about ten rooms in Furuyu Onsen, a hot spring hamlet along the Kase River in the Sefuri mountains of Fuji-cho, Saga City. Furuyu Onsen is an old therapeutic bathing village whose origins are traced by legend to Xu Fu, an envoy of China's first emperor, some 2,200 years ago. It lies about 60 minutes by car from central Fukuoka and roughly 30 minutes from downtown Saga, yet the valley setting feels far removed from the city. Ogiya is known as the inn where the poet Mokichi Saito and the painter Shigeru Aoki stayed to recuperate, and the detached wing Saito used still stands on the grounds.

The water is an alkaline simple spring with a high pH of around 9.2 and a source temperature of about 38 degrees Celsius, making it the classic nuruyu, or lukewarm bath, that defines the Furuyu and Kumanokawa spring district. It is colorless and clear, with a distinctly silky, slippery feel on the skin that has long earned it a reputation as a beauty bath. The spring is served free-flowing, and alongside the lukewarm tub the inn keeps a second, warmer tub that is heated. Whether the water is diluted, recirculated, or chlorinated is not stated in published sources.

Bathing is in one large bath each for men and women, notable for a tatami-matted floor said to be the only one in Furuyu Onsen. The inn recommends soaking about 50 minutes in the lukewarm tub, then finishing with ten minutes in the hot tub. Guests may bathe from 15:00 to 22:00 and again from 7:00 to 9:00 the next morning. Day-trip bathing costs 700 yen including a face towel, and a day plan with three hours of private room use and the inn's signature kawara-soba set is available for 4,000 yen. Parking is free for 15 to 20 cars.