Towa Onsen

Towa Onsen carries a name that evokes permanence and infinite time — towa being a Japanese word meaning forever or eternity — suggesting a spring whose character, setting, or the sense of timelessness it inspires has led its keepers to invoke the most enduring of natural concepts in its designation. Located in Japan's volcanic archipelago, this thermal spring offers naturally heated mineral waters in a setting where the geological forces that have shaped the landscape over millions of years continue to express themselves through the steady rising of warm, mineralized water from the earth's interior. Towa Onsen embodies the Japanese philosophical relationship with hot spring bathing as a practice that connects the ephemeral human moment of immersion with the eternal geological processes of the volcanic earth, inviting bathers to dissolve into a warmth that has been rising from the same source, unchanged, since long before human history began.