Misasa Onsen Kayanuma

Misasa Onsen is located in the town of Misasa in Tottori Prefecture, one of Japan's most celebrated hot spring resorts, renowned since the medieval period for its naturally radioactive radium-rich bicarbonate thermal waters flowing from the Misasa River valley in the Chugoku mountains of western Honshu. The bicarbonate and radium mineral character of Misasa's thermal springs has made this onsen one of Japan's most scientifically studied radon-radium balneological sites, drawing academic and research interest from Japanese and international scholars within a long thermal tradition. The nearby Mitoku-san Nageiredo—a 9th-century temple hall wedged into a sheer cliff face above Misasa, designated Japan's most dangerous national treasure for its seemingly impossible location accessible only by iron chains—frames this hot spring resort within one of Japan's most dramatically situated sacred architectural heritage sites.