Michinoku-an

Michinoku-an sits on a forested hilltop above Kamasaki Onsen in southern Miyagi, a nine-room wooden hermitage where the okami still greets every guest and kaiseki is served on tatami by nakai who remember your name from last year. The monthly-changing cuisine draws from contract farmers within four kilometres, anchored by tribute-quality rice from the Shiroishi plain, and the inn's own fruit liqueurs made by the okami and her daughter-in-law.

The proprietary cold mineral spring (Unjo no Yu) requires heating but carries six centuries of Kamasaki's medicinal bathing tradition on its skin. What guests carry home is the particular quiet of dining alone in a room that faces nothing but evergreen forest, attended by people who have chosen smallness as a form of devotion.