Japan's Backcountry Wild Hot Springs
Kirifuri Plateau Japan has the most hot springs in the world. With over 3,000 developed hot springs alone, you can throw a stone and hit one anywhere in the country. Whole towns known as 'onsen towns' spring up around sources throughout the country. The key word here is developed. The Japanese love hot springs and have wasted no time monetizing them. If you can reach it by road, it probably costs money. There are exceptions of course. Scattered around the country are free or abandoned hot springs that can always draw a crowd. What is extremely rare are undeveloped backcountry hot springs. Usually so remote and difficult to get to, no one even bothered trying to develop them. These are often not easily found on maps. They tend to be loosely spread throughout internet hot spring fan sites or word of mouth. The hot spring I set out to visit was just such a hot spring. I had heard about it from a local driver. Why the secrecy? People bringing in trash and damaging...