Geo: 36.7801, 138.968Visiting an onsen, a Japanese hot spring, is an activity that we missed on our first Japanese trip, one that became a goal for this visit. While we harboured fears that it could be another disappointing forced Japanese experience, it turned out to be rather memorable. The difference between onsen and the Robot Show or Sushi Dai is that those two were not traditional Japanese experiences, but ones that were seemingly either created by, or produced for, foreign tourists. Onsen is about as Japanese as it gets, and isn't so much an experience, as it is a ritual, one that goes as far back as the eighth century. Being a volcanically-active country, Japan's landscape is dotted with onsens, so the choice is difficult. We wound up selecting Takaragawa for a few reasons - a
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