Niyodogawa Onsen

Niyodogawa Onsen flows beside the Niyodo River, internationally celebrated as one of Japan's clearest rivers — its 'Niyodo Blue' water color, an extraordinarily vivid turquoise produced by fine particulates filtered through the river's pristine highland catchment, has made the Niyodogawa's swimming holes and river views among the most photographed natural water scenes in all of Shikoku, attracting nature enthusiasts seeking one of Japan's last truly pristine river experiences. The Niyodogawa town preserves the character of a traditional forest and farming community in the heart of the Shikoku highlands, where cedar and Japanese cypress plantations alternate with natural broadleaf forest on the steep valley walls rising above the brilliant turquoise river below. The onsen's siliceous mineral waters, sharing the same highland geology that produces the Niyodo's extraordinary clarity, offer thermal bathing in one of Japan's most visually spectacular river valleys, where the combination of blue water, green forest, and mountain air represents the natural world at its most luminous.