Yumotokan

Yugashima is a quiet hot spring resort along the Kano River Valley set amid the Amagi Mountains, where several ryokan are scattered among the dense green forest. The Yumotokan is well known because it’s the setting for the Nobel Prize winning novelist Yasunari Kawabata’s short story “The Izu Dancer”. As soon as you enter this traditional ryokan with its retro atmosphere, you will feel as if you have stepped back in time. As the pictures and photos of the dancers are hanging on the wall, the ryokan evokes the enchanting world of Japanese literature.

Kawabata was very fond of this ryokan and often sat on the very stairs where the student in the novel was watching the dancer. Kawabata wrote, “my stay in Yumotokan could have lasted half year or even one year during the 3 to 4 years after I graduated the college.” During this time, he wrote the story based on the memories of his solo trip to Izu, when he was a student of the First Higher School and published the story, “The Izu Dancer” in 1926.

There is an open-air bath in the wild right next to Kano River, with spring water flowing directly in from the source. You can bath in the true essence of nature while listening to the peaceful sounds of the stream and birds. The baths are available only on a rental basis, so its magnificent view can be only for you.