Kitagawamura Onsen Yuzu no Yado

Kitagawamura Onsen Yuzu no Yado is a village-run hot spring inn set along the upper reaches of the Nahari River in Kitagawa Village, in the eastern part of Kochi Prefecture. The village is the birthplace of the late-Edo statesman Nakaoka Shintaro and one of Japan's leading producers of yuzu citrus, from which the inn takes its name. The spring itself has been known locally for more than eighty years, and the current building opened in June 2018 after a complete reconstruction.

The water is classified as a sodium chloride and bicarbonate cold mineral spring (hypotonic, weakly alkaline). Because the source emerges at only about 20 degrees Celsius, it is heated before being fed to the baths, but it is never diluted: the inn uses undiluted spring water throughout. Clear and noticeably silky on the skin, it is known locally as a beauty bath and is praised for how long it holds in warmth. Listed indications include cuts, poor peripheral circulation, sensitivity to cold, dry skin and low mood.

The building is the first hot spring facility in Japan constructed with CLT (cross-laminated timber), a two-storey structure of roughly 1,476 square metres built almost entirely from Kochi-grown wood, about half of it from around Kitagawa Village itself, and a winner of the Kochi Prefecture Wood Culture Award. Alongside the main bath and a mountain-view open-air bath is a private bath fitted with a Shigaraki ceramic tub, available by reservation. Day-trip bathing runs from 11:00 to 21:00 (last entry 20:30), closed Tuesdays, at 800 yen for adults and 400 yen for children. The inn has fourteen guest rooms.