Hoshi Onsen Chojukan

Hoshi Onsen is a single inn, Chojukan, with no village around it. It sits by the Hoshi River below the Mikuni Pass on the old road from Gunma into Niigata. The main building went up in 1875, and the bathhouse, Hoshi-no-yu, in 1895. Both, along with the annex, were registered as national tangible cultural properties in 2006. Hoshi-no-yu is the reason people make the trip. It is a tall wooden hall with a cedar-bark roof, and the tubs are wooden frames laid over river stones. The spring comes up from the bedrock right under those stones at around 40°C, and the inn says it does almost no heating, adding of water or recirculation. You will see small bubbles rise around your feet. It is mixed bathing. A second bath, Choju-no-yu, also has water rising from below; ask the inn which baths are open to men and women when you visit. Yosano Akiko and Kawabata Yasunari both stayed here. Day bathing is possible, but the window is short and the inn closes it on Wednesdays. The buses make a day trip work only on one schedule, so read the transport notes before you go. Sarugakyo, the onsen village by Lake Akaya where you change buses, has the site of the old Sarugakyo checkpoint on the Mikuni road and is a good place to fill the wait.