Jonbi Onsen; Rakuju no Yu

Insider tip — Rakuju no Yu serves Kashiwazaki City on the Sea of Japan coast of Niigata, a city whose coastal sand dunes and rice paddies face the world largest nuclear power plant complex at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa across the Shinano River estuary. Kashiwazaki has historically been a prosperous rice-growing and silk-weaving center, and the Uonuma region to its east produces some of Japan finest koshihikari rice — the city name itself means oak grove on the sandbar, describing the coastal ecosystem of dune, wetland, and beech forest that frames this Niigata thermal resort.