Kanuma Onsen Tochigi

Kanuma, north of Utsunomiya in central Tochigi Prefecture, is the self-proclaimed 'bonsai capital' and 'koi capital' of Japan, with the Kanuma Bonsai Art Museum and the surrounding nurseries producing the premium akadama soil — a volcanic clay essential for bonsai cultivation — that has made Kanuma the indispensable supply centre for Japan's most refined horticultural art form. Kanuma Onsen Tochigi draws on sodium and bicarbonate thermal waters from the geothermal resources of the central Tochigi basin, offering restorative baths in a city whose bonsai and koi heritage creates a distinctive aesthetic character among Tochigi's spa destinations, the art of living miniature trees and ornamental fish representing the Japanese sensibility of controlled natural beauty at its most refined. The Kanuma Bonsai Art Museum's extraordinary living collection, the Kanuma International Akadama Soil and Bonsai Trade Fair, and the scenic approach to Nikko's UNESCO religious heritage sites along the Kinu River valley create an appealingly refined and artistically distinctive spa destination in central Tochigi Prefecture.