Yasato Onsen

Yasato Onsen—Eight Villages Spring or Peaceful Village Spring—takes its name either from the administrative gathering of eight rural communities (yasato) or from the sense of settled, peaceful village life (yasato) that characterizes the spring's agricultural setting in Ibaraki Prefecture, where the volcanic geology that underlies the Kanto plain produces thermal springs amid the paddy fields and vegetable farms of one of Japan's most productive agricultural regions. The bicarbonate and carbonated waters deliver the effervescent, skin-stimulating mineral soak that provides a refreshing therapeutic counterpoint to the physical labor of agricultural work, a spring that has historically served the farming communities of the surrounding villages. This spring's village-gathering name reflects the community-centered character of Japan's rural onsen culture, where thermal springs serve as gathering places for the agricultural communities built around them.