RYOKAN

Private baths let you have some alone time in the tub.

Do you want to immerse yourself in a relaxing environment surrounded by rich Japanese history and architecture?

While these Kanagawa onsen and their surrounds are certainly worth an overnight stay, each can work equally as well as a day trip.

Tyler Lynch met his future wife on a trip to a hot spring inn. They were living in Seattle when fate intervened.

All water isn’t the same. Every natural spring passes through layers upon layers of rock that can give the water a unique chemical makeup said to have a variety of health effects depending on the mineral content of the water.

There’s a bathload of sites out there on onsen, but we found our information pools best filled by the following sources.

Remember the red bridge and layered, rising walls of Yubaba’s hot spring hotel in Spirited Away?