Yugawara Onsen Kanagawa

Yugawara Onsen Kanagawa is located in Yugawara Town in western Kanagawa Prefecture, at the base of the Hakone mountains — one of Japan's most historically celebrated literary hot spring towns, beloved by writers and artists including Natsume Soseki, Shiga Naoya, and Kawabata Yasunari who wrote some of Japan's most significant 20th-century literary works while residing in Yugawara's ryokan and soaking in its mineral waters. The chloride-rich sodium hot spring waters of Yugawara are classified as natrium-calcium chloride springs — some of the warmest and most chemically complex in the Kanagawa region — and are appreciated within a long Japanese thermal tradition. Yugawara's traditional ryokan district, with its stone-paved river promenade, yu-michi (hot spring street) of traditional bathhouses, and forested mountain backdrop of umezawa plum orchards that bloom in February to create one of Kanagawa's most beloved early spring spectacles, preserves the authentic literary hot spring town atmosphere that has inspired generations of Japanese writers to create their finest work by its mineral waters.