Fushio Onsen Fushioukaku

Tucked into the hills of Ikeda City, Osaka, Fushio Onsen Fushioukaku is a standalone inn wrapped in deep greenery, despite being just 30 minutes by car from central Osaka. Its predecessor was "Fushio no Ayujaya," a riverside eatery founded in 1933 by Uichiro Okamoto. When the inn was rebuilt as a ryokan in 1963, it was named "Fushioukaku" after a Heian-era legend behind the local place name "Fushio": the priest Kenjitsu of nearby Kyuanji Temple prayed for the empress's safe delivery, and the resulting birth of the future Emperor Konoe led the area to be called "Fushio-mura" (immortal king village), later shortened to Fushio.

The hot spring itself is younger, discovered through drilling in 1967. The proprietary source, Fushio Onsen No. 2, is a sodium bicarbonate spring (alkaline, hypotonic, cold mineral spring) with a pH of 8.99 and a source temperature of 25.3 degrees Celsius. The water is colorless and clear with a faint scent of chlorine; because of its low emergence temperature, it is heated, diluted, filtered through a circulation system, and disinfected before reaching the baths. Its strongly alkaline quality is prized as a skin-softening "beauty bath," with stated benefits spanning neuralgia, muscle pain, poor circulation, atopic dermatitis, rheumatic conditions, gout, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes, chronic liver and biliary disorders, post-injury recovery, and general fatigue.

Bathing facilities include a large indoor bath and a garden open-air bath with a reclining bath and jet bath, plus a 92-degree-Celsius sauna, a 20-degree cold plunge, and löyly steam service. Day-trip bathing runs from 11:00 to 22:00 (last entry 21:00) for 1,800 yen per adult and 900 yen per child (tax included), with free parking for 300 cars.