Ina Onsen

Ina Onsen is located in Ina City, Nagano Prefecture, in the southern Ina Valley — a broad mountain basin flanked by the Central Alps (Kiso Mountains) to the west and the Southern Alps (Akaishi Mountains) to the east, forming one of Japan's most dramatically mountain-enclosed river valley landscapes, through which the Tenryu River flows toward the Pacific Ocean. The siliceous thermal waters here serve a city known for the Ina Valley's distinctive entomophagy culture — the eating of insects including silk worm pupae, rice grasshoppers, and wasp larvae, which remain regional delicacies preserved from ancient practice — alongside the agricultural produce of the valley's apple orchards and horseradish cultivation. Bathing at Ina Onsen in this dramatically mountain-enclosed valley offers a uniquely Nagano combination of geological grandeur, cultural distinctiveness, and therapeutic siliceous mineral spring relaxation in the heart of the Japanese Alps corridor.