Oku Yugawara Onsen

Oku Yugawara Onsen—Inner Yugawara Spring—lies in the deep valley behind the main Yugawara Onsen resort in Kanagawa Prefecture, where the forested inner gorge provides a more secluded and intimate thermal spring experience than the larger resort while sharing the same geological volcanic heritage that has made Yugawara one of the most celebrated hot spring resorts in the greater Tokyo and Kanto region. Yugawara has historically been one of Japan's great literary hot spring resorts—Kawabata Yasunari, Shiga Naoya, and other major figures of Japanese literature spent extended periods here, finding in its clear, flowing thermal waters the creative inspiration that has made Yugawara as famous in Japanese literary culture as it is in the thermal spa tradition. The inner valley setting of Oku Yugawara adds depth and natural seclusion to the literary and therapeutic heritage of one of the Kanto region's most beloved hot spring landscapes.