Nozawa Onsen

Nozawa Onsen is a village built around its water. The 13 soto-yu, small public bathhouses scattered along its slopes, are free, and each has a different building and a different source, so the water changes from one to the next. They are not a tourist attraction that happens to allow locals. They belong to the villagers, who have kept them through yu-nakama, neighbourhood bath groups dating from the Edo period, and who clean them every day. Visitors are welcome, and a donation box at each entrance pays toward the upkeep. The one most people start with is Oyu, a three-tiered wooden bathhouse in Edo-period style in the middle of the village. Inside, one tub is labelled atsu-yu (hot) and the other nuru-yu (less hot), and both are simple sulphur water. Be warned that less hot is relative here: the water goes in at source temperature with no adjustment. You may run cold water to make it bearable, but turn the tap off once it is. The baths have no soap or shampoo, so bring your own and a small towel. A short walk away is Ogama, where water at close to 90°C rises into five stone-lined pools. It is the village kitchen: residents boil vegetables and eggs there, and in late autumn they wash the year's nozawana greens in it. Only villagers may go in, and you watch from outside the fence. On 15 January the village holds the Dosojin fire festival, one of Japan's three great fire festivals and a national Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property, where the men of the 25- and 42-year-old age groups defend a wooden shrine against burning torches until it is set alight. The ski area above the village fills Nozawa in winter; outside the season the baths are quieter.