Shima Onsen: A Quiet Second-Trip Retreat — Gunma, 2 Days

A relaxed café by the Shima River at the entrance to the onsen village, Kashiwaya is the gentle way to arrive: a coffee, a slice of cake or the café's well-known curry, taken at a window over the water before you start exploring on foot. It sets the pace for the whole stay — unhurried, small-scale, local. Drop your energy here, plan the afternoon over a cup, and walk into the village from the door.

Open daily, roughly 10:00–17:00 (last order 16:30); closing days vary — reconfirm by phone (approx., 2026). At 4237-45 Shima, Nakanojo. Allow about an hour.

Sekizenkan is the soul of Shima: its main building, dating to 1691, is said to be the oldest surviving wooden hot-spring inn in Japan, and the vermilion Momoji-bashi bridge leading to it, with the inn's lantern-lit front rising behind, is one of the most photographed scenes in Gunma — a view so evocative it is widely, if unofficially, rumoured to have inspired the bathhouse in a celebrated animated film. Inside, the Genroku-no-Yu, a Taisho-era bath hall of arched windows and rows of small tiled tubs, is a designated tangible cultural property. Even as a day visitor you can tour the historic building and bathe; it is the one essential stop in the valley.

Day-use tours and bathing roughly 10:00–17:30, around ¥1,500 (approx., 2026); overnight stays also available. The Spirited Away connection is popularly cited but has never been officially confirmed. At Shima Onsen, Nakanojo. Allow about 75 minutes.

At the confluence of the valley's streams near the Hagi bridge, Kawara-no-Yu is a free public bath built into a small stone, cave-like structure right by the water — one of a handful of communal baths the town keeps for residents and visitors alike. It is plain and atmospheric: a stone tub of Shima's clear hot water, the river just outside, no frills. A short soak here, between the grandeur of Sekizenkan and the comfort of the ryokan, is the most local thing you can do in the valley, and it costs nothing.

Open daily, roughly 09:00–15:00; free (donation appreciated). No regular closing day. Near the Hagi bridge in Shima Onsen, Nakanojo (4228-2 Shima). Bring your own towel; basic, mixed-use facility. Allow about 45 minutes.

Shima Tamura is one of the valley's grand old inns, tracing its origins back to the Muromachi period, set above the river with several baths drawn from its own springs. As the night's base it gives you Shima's water in quiet and comfort — a kaiseki dinner of mountain and river fare, the sound of the stream, and the valley dark and starlit once the day-trippers have gone. Separate from the day-use grandeur of Sekizenkan, it is the place to actually sleep, soak and slow down.

From roughly ¥16,500 per person with two meals (approx., 2026); around 50 parking spaces. At 4180 Shima, Nakanojo. Listed here as the night's sleep anchor. Allow the evening for the baths and dinner.

At the head of the valley above the onsen, the Shimagawa Dam holds back Okushima Lake, a reservoir famous for the extraordinary deep cobalt colour its water takes on — the so-called 'Shima Blue', at its most vivid in spring when snowmelt and fine mineral particles turn the lake an almost unreal turquoise-blue. A one-way road loops the shore with viewpoints, and you can walk out onto the dam crest above the water. It is a short drive up from the village and the single most striking natural sight in the valley — quiet, strange and beautiful.

Open and free at all hours; the colour is strongest in spring (April–May). Car access only — no public bus to the upper lake. At Shima, Nakanojo, a short drive above the village. Allow about 75 minutes for the loop and the dam crest.

Several waterfalls hide in the forest around Shima, and Ogura Falls is the signature one — a tiered cascade reached by a maintained mountain path that climbs through the trees from the valley road. The walk in, about forty minutes each way, is the point as much as the falls: cool, green, almost silent, with the stream for company. It is the gentle adventure that rounds out a slow Shima stay before you turn for home, and it pairs naturally with the morning at the blue lake.

Open and free; the trail is about 2.5 km / 40 minutes one way, with steep sections — wear proper shoes. Note land leeches on the path roughly April–November; long trousers help. At Shima, Nakanojo. Allow about 75 minutes round trip, or skip the full walk and view the lower falls if short on time.

Founded in 1865 on Shima's Ochiai street, opposite Sekizenkan, Komatsuya is a long-standing soba house that mills its own buckwheat and cuts the noodles by hand — a fragrant, properly made bowl that is the right last meal in the valley. Eat it cold to taste the flour, or hot in broth against the highland chill, and let the morning's walk settle before the drive out. It is small and local, exactly the unhurried note Shima is best taken in.

Open for lunch, roughly 11:30–15:00; a soba set runs roughly ¥900–1,600 (approx., 2026). At 4224-2 Shima, Nakanojo, on Ochiai street opposite Sekizenkan. (The correct Shima shop, not the same-named house elsewhere.) Allow about an hour.