Cacia at Onsen (Patreon)

After a pretty 2 hour hike up the mountain with my local friend Megumi and long-time model friend Cacia Zoo, we ended up at a little rustic onsen "resort" that is only accessible by hiking in.  They do have proper indoor baths and lodgings (although quite rustic in nature), and even serve some food (we got a hot lunch there afterwards), but for us the only reason to come was the isolated little bath built along the riverside about 7 minutes hike further up from the onsen grounds. This place is actually the highest elevation natural hot spring in all of Japan, so it surprises me how empty it is!

We had the bath all to ourselves the whole time (we stayed almost two hours), and cracked open some beers we had bought from the lady running the onsen.  The view looking up river toward one of the peaks of Yatsugatake, with the leaves just beginning to change for autumn was quite spectacular.  Hot springs always seem best enjoyed when the weather is cold out, but I asked Megumi what time of year people liked to come up to this onsen and she told me it would only be busy in the summer.  All the better for us!

At some point Cacia got the idea that she wanted to take a cold plunge by sitting in the river and scrambled her way down to sit under a little falls.  Megumi and I laughed (and Megumi screamed with shock at Cacia's bravery), but then we decided we had to see what it was like for ourselves and both went down to try sitting in the freezing snowmelt.  After the quickest sit in the falls we were in awe at Cacia's cold plunge prowess!  All of us were pretty darn happy to get back in the hot stinky water of the hot spring though!

Eventually we had to dry off and pack up so we could make it back down before it got too cold.  A wind was picking up and making it chilly quite suddenly.  About halfway down though our perfect afternoon was slightly marred when a freezing rain started pelting us with hail and it never let up.  Cacia and I were soaked to the bone by the time we got to the car, but it definitely added to the narrative of the whole hike and made the memory even more exciting for us! Definitely we really nice day!

The whole set of 33 hi-res images documenting Cacia at the onsen is available for $25 Archive patrons in the Archive folder.