Hot springs swimming pool, Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, c. 1930.

Swimming pool, Fujiya Miyanoshita Hotel, Hakone, c. 1930.

“Large swimming tank at the Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita,” c. 1930.

“The Fujiya Hotel stands at the head of this street. Here, in the very loveliest surroundings, one can live in the lap of luxury and comfort. The table is of the choicest, the service unsurpassed, and the daintiest and sweetest little maidens of Japan, with soft white tabi on their feet, tread silently to anticipate one’s every wish, or run to do one’s bidding.

“But, the baths! One simply lives in them. Hot volcanic water, with just a trace of sulphur in it — enough to make it soft and soothing — is piped from the solfataras [sulfur ‘volcano’], miles up in the hills above, to huge oblong wooden tubs, which one can enter any hour of the day or night, and use the water as one pleases.

“But that is not all. At the back of the hotel, out in the open air, there is a monster swimming-bath, from three- to ten-feet deep, with spring-boards and diving-stages, and hot and cold water laid on, so that its temperature may be fitted to the season.”

– In Lotus Land Japan, by Herbert G. Ponting, F.R.G.S., 1910

Outdoor hot springs pool, Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, c. 1930.

Outdoor pool, “The Plunge,” using cold and hot springs water depending on the season, Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, c. 1930.

“The only really attractive spring resort for foreigners at the present time is Miyanoshita about fifty miles from Yokohama. Here is a sumptuous hotel fitted with all modern conveniences and conducted in an irreproachable way. The hundreds of other spring resorts are provided with native hotels some of very high character and beloved of the Japanese but very rarely patronized by foreign guests.

“… The spontaneous irrepressible delivery from of the springs is unbelievable. Here at Miyanoshita, the daily outflow is estimated at twelve thousand gallons daily. From the total, Hotel Fujiya alone takes enough to supply unrestricted baths to 120 guests, a pipe to the outdoor swimming pool, all the wants of the Hotel for general washing and cleaning purposes, radiators for heating all the general assembly principal guest rooms and corridors, and heating coils for a green house.

“The water is at the temperature of about 180° F. at the spring; 140° F. at the delivery faucets in the hotel.”

– ‘The Balneology of Japan’, The New England Journal of Medicine, by Horace Packard, M.D., January 20, 1921

The indoor “Dream Pool”, Fujiya Hotel, Miyanoshita, c. 1930.