Akigami Onsen Ryokan

Akigami Onsen Ryokan is a single isolated inn standing at an altitude of 1,026 metres in the mountains of Kurumijima, Asahi-cho, in the city of Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, on the northern flank of Mt. Ontake. It opened in 1935. The inn sits deep in the forest along the upper Akigami River, and no other dwelling lies further upstream. It is known throughout Japan for the Hyotenka no Mori, or Forest Below Freezing, an ice landscape that the innkeeper began building in 1971 by turning the brutal mountain winter to his advantage. Today some 6,000 metres of water hose are laid across roughly four hectares of grounds, and ice-making starts each year around December.

The official description of the water uses the pre-war term jun-doruitansan-tetsusen, which corresponds under the current classification to an iron-bearing spring, specifically a ferrous carbonate-hydrogen spring with calcium and magnesium. The source emerges at just 14 degrees Celsius, so the water is heated before bathing. Its high iron content turns the bath a cloudy reddish to tea brown, a rare water type among the hot springs of the Hida Takayama area. The inn lists lower back pain, neuralgia, sensitivity to cold and joint pain among its indications. Whether the bath is diluted, recirculated or chlorinated is not stated in any primary source.

There is one indoor bath each for men and women, and no open-air pool. The Akigami River runs directly beneath the windows, so bathers soak to the sound of the stream. The inn is small, with six Japanese-style rooms, two of which have a private toilet, and a capacity of twenty guests, plus a 44-mat banquet hall and a small natural history exhibition room. Rates run from 16,000 to 22,000 yen per person per night with two meals, tax, service charge and the 150 yen bathing tax included. Day visitors cannot simply pay to bathe: bathing is available only with a reserved meal plan, from 3,000 yen for lunch and 4,000 yen for dinner.