Working between Japan and France is great. Knowing how to truly rest is non-negotiable. My top 5 onsen and ryokan.

International mobility has been my daily life for almost two years now. Tokyo, Paris, back to Tokyo. Clients across three time zones, teams in Paris, Montreal and Tokyo. I love it. But let me be direct, this pace only works if you learn to recharge. Working from anywhere is a freedom. Truly resting is a skill.

And for that, Japan has an unfair advantage over the rest of the world, the onsen. Thousands of hot springs, ryokan where time stops, an entire culture built around rest. One or two hours from Tokyo, the noise is gone.

After almost two years between Japan and France, here are my five favorite spots. In no particular order. Just five places where I actually switch off.

Awanoyu, Shirahone Onsen (Nagano)

Deep in the Japanese Alps, next to Kamikochi. An inn founded in 1912, famous for its large mixed open-air bath with milky, almost opaque water rich in calcium and magnesium. Locals say three days of bathing at Shirahone keeps you cold-free for three years. You slide into that white water in the middle of the forest and your brain finally goes quiet.

Dōgo Onsen, Matsuyama (Shikoku)

Japan's oldest onsen, with roughly 3,000 years of history and a mention in the Man'yōshū. The 1894 main bathhouse inspired the bathhouse in Spirited Away, and Natsume Sōseki was a regular. Three stars in the Michelin Green Guide. It is time travel as much as a bath. You come out feeling like you understood something about Japan.

Inatori Ginsuiso, Izu Peninsula (Shizuoka)

Two and a half hours from Tokyo by train, a fifty-year-old ryokan facing the Pacific. Every room looks out on the sea, the hot spring source is the inn's own, and the food keeps up, ise-ebi lobster and kinmedai caught that day. This is omotenashi, Japanese hospitality, at its finest. My weekend option when I want to disconnect without boarding a plane.

Yumoto Horohoro Sansō, Kitayuzawa (Hokkaidō)

A mountain onsen at the foot of Mount Horohoro, between Sapporo and Noboribetsu. Indoor and outdoor baths, ganbanyoku hot stone spa, and a buffet that does Hokkaidō justice. In winter you sit in the steaming water while snow falls around you. Hard to find anything more otherworldly two hours from an international airport.

Beach Hotel Sunshine, Ishigaki (Okinawa)

The complete opposite. One of the very few hotels on Ishigaki with a real onsen on site, an open-air bath facing the East China Sea. In the evening you watch the sunset from the bath, then the stars. Ishigaki is tropical Japan, beaches, diving, and one of the purest night skies in the country.

What it changes day to day

That is the real luxury of life in Japan. Not the salary, not Shibuya. It is being able to take a train on a Friday evening and find yourself two hours later in 42-degree water facing the sea or the mountains. On Monday morning, you are a different person.

At Abbeal, we support engineers who keep their job and change their life through Mobbeal, our mobility program to Japan and Canada. Visa, housing, legal framework, we handle it. The rest, the onsen, the ryokan, the weekends in Izu, is yours to discover. And trust me, it is worth the trip.

Want to talk about it? Let's take 30 minutes.