Shirakawago Hirase Onsen Oyado Yunosato

Oyado Yunosato is a small eight-room ryokan in Hirase, Shirakawa Village, Gifu Prefecture, standing beside the Shokawa River on the western foot of Mount Hakusan. The World Heritage gassho-style village of Shirakawa-go is about fifteen minutes away by car, as is the Shirakawa-go interchange on the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway. The building itself was moved here from Noto, where it had been the house of a fishing-net owner; it is not a gassho farmhouse, but its heavy beams and tatami rooms carry the feel of an older Japan. Hirase Onsen as a resort dates from 1966, when a new source was drilled upstream of the Ohshirakawa Dam after the original Ohshirakawa spring near the Hakusan trailhead was submerged by the dam's construction in 1961. The area was designated a National Health Resort Hot Spring on 27 March 1980.

The source, named Ohshirakawa Line No. 2, is a sulphur-bearing sodium chloride spring, hypotonic and alkaline, emerging at 93.2 degrees Celsius. It rises some fifteen kilometres away at the foot of Mount Hakusan and reaches the inn through a distribution pipeline. The inn advertises one hundred percent source water with no recirculation or filtration, and the water has long been called the spring of fertility for its reputed benefits for the skin and for women's health. Listed indications include neuralgia, muscle and joint pain, frozen shoulder, motor paralysis, joint stiffness, bruises, sprains, chronic digestive complaints, haemorrhoids, sensitivity to cold, convalescence, fatigue and general health. Because the pipeline is long, the inn openly warns that heavy rain or avalanches interrupt the supply a few times a year, at which point the baths are filled with boiler-heated water instead.

There are two private baths and no large communal bath or open-air pool. Overnight guests may bathe from 15:00 until 9:30 the following morning. Day visitors pay a flat 700 yen for adults and children alike, including consumption and bathing tax, but no opening hours are published and bathing is sometimes unavailable for maintenance or cleaning, so calling ahead is essential. All eight rooms are Japanese-style without private bath or toilet, and the inn takes only four parties a day. One room per day can be booked by guests travelling with a dog, at 3,300 yen per animal. Parking is free for eight cars on a first-come basis.