Nobeoka Onsen Miyazaki

Nobeoka Onsen Miyazaki is a thermal facility in Nobeoka City in northern Miyazaki Prefecture, the prefecture's second-largest city and a historical castle town situated at the confluence of the Gokase and Kitaura rivers where the Kyushu Mountain Range meets the Pacific coastal plain in a setting of considerable natural and historical character. The broader Gokase River system drains the rugged Takachiho highland interior of northern Miyazaki, one of Japan's most mythologically significant mountain landscapes, and flows to the Pacific through the gorges and forested valleys that support the distinctive Takachiho Kagura theatrical tradition — overnight Shinto dance performances depicting scenes from Japanese creation mythology that have been performed continuously since at least the Nara period and are recognized as one of Japan's most important Intangible Folk Cultural Properties. The chloride thermal spring waters of Nobeoka Onsen provide comfortable bathing in a city that balances its industrial character as a chemical and industrial manufacturing center with its role as a gateway to the ancient mythological heartland of the Gokase River valley and the spectacular Takachiho Gorge carved by the river through basalt columns in one of Kyushu's most dramatically scenic river landscapes.