Takamatsu Onsen Ritsurin

Takamatsu Onsen Ritsurin is a thermal bathing facility in Takamatsu City, the capital of Kagawa Prefecture on the island of Shikoku, whose most celebrated cultural asset is the magnificent Ritsurin Garden, a 17th-century Edo-period landscape garden designated a Special National Site of Scenic Beauty — the highest category of natural and cultural heritage in Japan — whose composition of six ponds, thirteen artificial hills, 1,400 pine trees individually tended by specialist gardeners over 300 years, and views borrowed from the surrounding Shiunzan mountain create what many consider the finest traditional garden in Japan, surpassing even the famous gardens of Kyoto in the artistry of its landscape composition. Kagawa Prefecture is universally celebrated throughout Japan as the homeland of Sanuki udon, the thick, chewy, supremely satisfying noodle style whose perfection of texture and the ritual of self-service preparation at the prefecture's hundreds of udon shops has created a culinary culture so central to local identity that Kagawa is simply nicknamed Udon Prefecture and visitors from across Japan and the world make pilgrimage specifically for the noodle experience. The bicarbonate thermal spring waters of this facility provide relaxation near Japan's finest garden in a city where garden aesthetics of extraordinary refinement and the simple democratic pleasure of a bowl of perfect noodles define the cultural character of Shikoku's most accessible and welcoming gateway city.