Sunday night I went with friends to Kusatsu, a small, famous hot springs town about two and a half hours from Nagano by car. We left Nagano at 9pm and arrived at half past eleven. Many of the public baths are open all night, and we wanted to be there when the crowds weren’t.
In the center of town, there is a huge spring where much of the hot water gushes out of the ground and is piped to baths in various sections of town. The area has been tastefully built up with boardwalks and waterfalls, so it looks very picturesque.
The public bath we went to was small, but the water was steaming hot and it felt great — not a fancy bath, just utilitarian. We arrived back in Nagano around 3am.