Shiso Onsen Hyogo

Shiso, in the inland mountains of central Hyogo Prefecture, is a small forested city set in the valleys of the Ibo River and its tributaries, surrounded by the cedar and hinoki cypress forests of the Chugoku mountain range that create a deeply Japanese rural landscape of wooded ridges and river terrace farming. Shiso Onsen Hyogo draws on sodium and bicarbonate thermal waters from the geothermal resources of the inland Hyogo mountain zone, offering restorative baths in a remote forested setting where the sounds of the Ibo River and the mountain wind create an authentically therapeutic natural spa atmosphere far from the coastal urban centres of Hyogo Prefecture. The Yamasakicho Ibo River cormorant fishing tradition, the Fukusaki Town Folklore Museum from the hometown of Yanagita Kunio the father of Japanese folklore studies, and the forested mountain trails above Shiso create a rewarding hidden spa destination in the Harima highland forests.