Yunoyama Onsen

The Kintetsu Yunoyama Line ends at a small station called Yunoyama Onsen, and when you walk out of the turnstile the ropeway station is visible a short walk up the road. Mount Gozaisho rises directly behind it, 1,212 meters of granite and forest that forms the western edge of the Suzuka mountains on the Mie-Shiga border. The ropeway, built in 1959 and supported by what was for many years Japan's tallest pylon tower, takes fifteen minutes to reach the summit. From the bottom, looking up through the cable car window in late October, the entire slope is on fire with maple color: deep red and orange from the konara oaks, pale yellow from the birch stands, still-green patches of cedar that the autumn has not yet touched.

The springs at Yunoyama are alkaline, coming out of the ground at a cool 25 to 32 degrees Celsius, which means all the baths heat the water artificially rather than blending it down. The pH of 8.5 gives the water a clean, slightly slippery feel on the skin that is characteristic of alkaline springs. There is no smell. The water looks completely clear in the bath, though the alkalinity means that after soaking for thirty minutes you step out with a skin surface that is noticeably smoother than when you went in. The original spring here was apparently discovered by a wounded deer bathing in the water, an animal that keeps appearing in Japanese onsen founding stories because it requires no translation: the animal knows where to go, and humans follow.

The best single experience at Yunoyama is riding the ropeway in the early morning on a clear day in peak autumn season, then descending and getting into an outdoor bath at one of the inns along the valley floor while the color-changed slopes are still lit by low-angle morning light. The combination is straightforward and almost embarrassingly good. You sit in hot water at 25 degrees Celsius output, heated to bathing temperature, and look up at a mountain that looks like it is actively burning. The valley has a small river running through it with footbath installations built into the stone ledges beside the water.

The access from Nagoya is about ninety minutes by Kintetsu Limited Express to Kintetsu-Yokkaichi, then a transfer to the Yunoyama Line. Osaka takes about two hours total. This makes Yunoyama a practical day trip from either city in autumn, and the ropeway lines get long on weekends during the first two weeks of November when the color peaks. Going midweek is strongly advisable. The town itself is small, a few dozen inns and a handful of restaurants, but the mountain behind it is large enough that it does not feel like a bottleneck. The scale of Gozaisho dominates everything down here, and that is entirely the point.