Spa Resort Hawaiians

The Joban coal mines around Iwaki had a problem: hot water. Underground springs at around 60 degrees flooded the workings and had to be pumped out constantly, a nuisance the company paid for and got nothing back from. When the mines began closing in the 1960s, a manager proposed using that same water to heat an indoor tropical resort, and to retrain miners' daughters as hula dancers. It opened as the Joban Hawaiian Center in January 1966 and worked. The story became the 2006 film Hula Girls, which is worth watching before you go.

What is there now is a set of domes kept at around 28 degrees all year: pools, water slides, a large sand-floored area, palms, and one open-air bath advertised as the largest in the world. The hula and Polynesian dance shows run twice a day and are performed by the resort's own dance company, trained at its school on site, which is the direct descendant of that first troupe.

It closed after the 2011 earthquake and the dancers spent the following year touring Japan to keep the company together and the town's name in circulation. That history matters locally and explains the loyalty the place still attracts.

A day pass is around 3,500 yen, hotel packages cost more, and school holidays are packed. Free coaches run from Tokyo for guests staying overnight. It is roughly three hours from Tokyo by train to Yumoto Station, then a short shuttle.