About 40 minutes from Tokyo by bullet train, the city of Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture, has long been a popular hot spa spot, attracting some 3 million visitors a year.
A roughly 10,000-sq.-meter compound with stately mansions and a garden, built and expanded by three tycoons, is also a popular tourist draw.
The Kiun-kaku structures, an elegant mix of Asian and Western styles, were once used as a hotel loved by a number of intellectuals, including novelists Naoya Shiga, Junichiro Tanizaki and Yukio Mishima.