Takanosu Onsen Takanosukan

A single secluded inn of Takanosu Onsen, set along the Arakawa Gorge in Sekikawa Village, northern Niigata, near the Yamagata border. Across a long suspension bridge lies a roughly 3,000-tsubo grounds where detached villa-style cottages, each different in design and size, are scattered among the natural landscape. Its name derives from a legend that boatmen once found an injured hawk bathing in a warm pool on the riverbank, revealing the hot spring. It is a member of the Japan Secret Hot Spring Preservation Society.

The spring is a sodium chloride-sulfate spring (hypotonic, neutral, high-temperature). The source emerges at 54 degrees Celsius with a pH of about 7.3 and an abundant flow of 360 liters per minute. It is served as a pure free-flowing source with no added water, heating, cooling, recirculation, or disinfection, and every bath draws on the inn's own source. Clear and colorless, it carries a saline, mineral character that warms the body deeply.

Bathing comprises two indoor and two open-air baths, and 8 of the 12 guest rooms are detached cottages with private open-air baths. Meals of seasonal regional cuisine are served in the room. Check-in is 15:00 and check-out 10:00. Day-use bathing is not offered; this is an inn for overnight guests only. Rates run from 15,750 to 38,850 yen per room for two, with breakfast and dinner (tax included).