This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Two things can be true at once — and in Japan they usually are. It’s a land of contradictions and, thanks to this and its reputation ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Onsen are baths filled with geothermally heated, mineral-rich water. They’ve long been part of Japanese culture, but foreign ...

After getting married to my Japanophile husband, annual trips to Japan are now a common fixture in my life. Over time, I’ve ...

You’ll want to buy a “tenugui” – a towel with the names of all the different onsens, and then as you hop from one onsen to another, stamp the tenugui. I’ve written about onsen etiquette and onsen ...

Visitors to Kyoto can experience traditional Japanese culture with a stay at a modern hotel designed in the style of a ryokan — a traditional Japanese inn — in the former imperial capital. Onyado Nono ...

Guests staying at these two ryokans have their pick of the city’s al fresco bathing on very different budgets. It’s not easy to find a natural hot spring in the most populated city in the world. But ...

(CNN) — It was a cold February day in northern Japan, snow piled high outside the onsen locker room windows as I slipped out of my clothes. Nervously, I stepped into the plumes of steam wafting from ...