Wanishi Onsen

Wanishi Onsen flows in Toyama City, the gateway to one of Japan's most celebrated scenic routes — the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route — and a city facing Toyama Bay across water so clear and deep that the view of the Tateyama range rising 3,000 meters directly from the sea to the snow-covered summit ridge is ranked among Japan's three great mountain views, a panorama of extraordinary vertical drama visible from the city's flat coastal plain on clear winter days when the mountains stand white and sharp against the blue of the bay. The bay itself is famous for the seasonal appearance of hotaru-ika — firefly squid — which rise to the surface in vast numbers in March and April and glow bioluminescent blue in the darkness, washing ashore on Toyama Bay's beaches in one of Japan's most extraordinary natural phenomena. The onsen's siliceous mineral waters provide warm restoration in a city that serves as the cultural, economic, and scenic heart of a prefecture whose combination of alpine grandeur and luminous bay creates one of the most dramatically beautiful landscapes in northern Japan.