I love this place: Tenzan

The library. Shhhh!

Today, we made it to Hakone and my favorite onsen, Tenzan. It's a hotspring complex nestled along a river about ten minutes from Hakone Yumoto station.
We did the Hakone conveyor-belt–like scenic course of train-cablecar-gondola-gondola-gondola-boat-bus. (The Odakyu Hakone Free Pass is a great value if you do this. It saves 20 bucks or so if you do the whole circuit.) We had lunch near the lake before taking the bus back to Hakone-Yumoto station. From there, we took a 100-yen shuttle bus to the onsen.
It was my third time at Tenzan. All the baths are outdoors. One of them goes into a cave, and a sign near it suggests you meditate inside and "absorb some of the power of the mountain." I like that they are all different temperatures. The mildest one is milky with microbubbles and covered with shady, trellised vines. Everyone who gets in says "ah! nurui!" How often do you hear people smile and say "Oh, it's tepid!" in everyday life? The cedar bath is so hot it makes your hands and feet feel almost numb. The cold plunge bath is so cold that it does make everything numb. Then there are two long, stone-lined baths that are comfortably hot. There's a stand of tall bamboo trees behind the wooden sauna hut and pine trees on the mountainside that slopes toward the baths.
As relaxing as the baths are the resting rooms. There are several. Inside the women-only area, there's a tatami room with bean bags and massage chairs overlooking the baths. (There's a sign that says in Japanese, "Although you may be able to see into the men's baths from here, the reverse is not true.") There is a spacious patio and at least three other rooms in the general area. One is open tatami and has low tables where people snack and play go. Another is tatami with rows of mats, pillows and blankets facing the river. (The only disturbance is the occasional clunk of the beer vending machine in the back.) The smallest public room is separated by a glass door. The button to open it is at eye level -- a subtle enforcement of the no-kids policy. This is called the library and it's my favorite, though you should bring your own reading. Their collection is pretty motley. There are only a handful of lounge chairs and leather recliners in here, and the front wall opens completely to the river. The woman next to me was inking cartoons that looked startlingly professional. Others were reading magazines and books.
There are a few restaurants, too, with traditional Japanese food, not cheap but not too expensive. We took the Romance Car home, which I can't recommend strongly enough. Not because it's romantic -- it's just a normal train with reserved seats, but it's a "special express" and very efficient. I've taken a combination of local trains home before, and every train change chips away a little bit of the day's relaxation.
Tenzan is big, but it doesn't have the pack 'em in commercial feel of LaQua or other spas in the city. Everything is simple, elegant and understated. I can't think of a more relaxing way to spend 1,200 yen.