I had a chance to go to a hotel that had a hot spring. I think the best season to bathe in hot springs in Japan is definitely fall, as you can see yellow leaves on trees.
This hotel called "Aokiya" was basically an ordinary hotel where people stay overnight, but it was accepting people who came only for the purpose of taking in the hot spring. This hotel was at Mt. Tsukuba, which was just a 1 hour's drive from where I live.
I had to pay 1050 yen to take a bath. According to this ad, the hot spring would make you recover from fatigue, and ladies have smooth skins.
There is this type of hot spring on the roof of a hotel in Japan which is called "Roten Buro", and "Roten" means "open air" and "Buro" is a bath. And the name of this "Roten Buro" was "Unjyou no Yu" or, "The spring above the clouds".
And this was the hot spring this hotel had. I could command the magnificent view from here. Basically the water in hot springs should come from the ground, but I thought this hot water had some groundwater mixed in the running water.
Foreign people aren't accustomed to taking a bath with strangers, but we Japanese just do that.
