Matsusaka Onsen Mie

Matsusaka, in central Mie Prefecture, is internationally renowned as the home of Matsusaka beef, one of Japan's three premium wagyu cattle brands alongside Kobe and Ohmi, whose extraordinary marbling and flavour have made this castle town the spiritual heartland of Japan's finest beef culture attracting connoisseurs from across the country. Matsusaka Onsen Mie draws on sodium and bicarbonate thermal waters from the geothermal resources of the Mie inland mountain zone, offering restorative baths in a city whose cuisine culture is among the most celebrated in Japan, with traditional sukiyaki-style wagyu dining rooms serving the prized cattle reared on a carefully monitored diet in the surrounding Mie highlands. The historic Matsusaka Castle ruins, the Motoori Norinaga Memorial Museum honouring the eighteenth-century nativist scholar, and the traditional machiya merchant townscape along the old Sanshu Highway make Matsusaka one of the most culturally and gastronomically satisfying spa destinations in the Tokai region.