Kumagaya Onsen Saitama

Kumagaya, in northern Saitama Prefecture on the Ara River, holds the distinction of being Japan's hottest city on record, having reached 41.1 degrees Celsius in August 2018, a distinction that gives the city a rueful relationship with extreme heat and the refreshing thermal spa culture that helps residents cope with the summer climate of the inland north Kanto plain. Kumagaya Onsen Saitama draws on sodium and bicarbonate thermal waters from the deep alluvial aquifers of the north Kanto plain, providing restorative mineral baths that serve as a year-round counterpoint to the city's famously fierce summer temperatures. The Kumagaya Uchiwa summer festival with elaborate fan-wielding processions, and the rugby heritage of Kumagaya as a major centre of Japanese rugby union culture — hosting World Cup matches in 2019 — create a vivid local identity for this record-breaking northern Saitama thermal city.