Fukushima Bandai Onsen

Fukushima Bandai Onsen is located in Fukushima City, the prefectural capital of Fukushima Prefecture, a city set in the Abukuma River basin between the Ou Mountains to the west and the Abukuma Highlands to the east with easy access to the magnificent Bandai-Azuma volcanic plateau, whose Jododaira highland marsh and Goshiki-numa five-colored volcanic crater ponds create one of Japan's most spectacular high-altitude volcanic landscapes. The prefecture takes its name from the provincial castle and is famous as the birthplace of Dr. Noguchi Hideyo, the bacteriologist whose image appears on Japan's thousand-yen note, who grew up on the shores of the beautiful Lake Inawashiro beneath the Bandai volcanic massif before achieving international fame for his work on yellow fever and syphilis. The mild thermal waters here offer relaxation in a capital city that has worked persistently to rebuild its image and attract visitors to its extraordinary natural landscapes, mountain culture, and agricultural heritage in the years following the 2011 nuclear incident at the coastal Fukushima Daiichi plant.