Suwa Onsen Katakurakan

Suwa Onsen Katakurakan is a distinguished traditional inn with hot spring bathing in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, set above the shores of Lake Suwa in the volcanic basin of the central Nagano highlands where the lake's surface famously freezes in winter and occasionally displays the Omiwatari, a dramatic natural phenomenon in which the thermal expansion of the ice creates a raised ridge of jagged ice crossing the lake surface, interpreted in Shinto belief as the footprints of the male deity of Suwa Grand Shrine crossing the lake to visit the female deity at the opposing shrine. Suwa Grand Shrine, one of Japan's oldest Shinto sanctuaries predating written records, is celebrated for the Onbashira festival held every six years in which enormous pine logs are hauled down mountainsides and ridden by fearless young men in a rite of territorial renewal that has been maintained for at least twelve centuries and is one of Japan's most dramatic and culturally significant festivals. The sodium-sulfate thermal waters of Katakurakan offer traditional ryokan hospitality in a city where the geological energy of the Suwa volcanic field, the spiritual intensity of Japan's most ancient shrine tradition, and the industrial precision of the watchmaking and precision optics industry that emerged from Suwa's engineering culture in the 20th century create an unusually layered and intellectually engaging thermal destination.