YONEZAWA, Yamagata Pref. -- When he received a phone call saying that a fire was blazing through the hotel where his grandfather was once a carpenter, local shop owner Masahiro Ohta rushed to help.
Working through his tears, Ohta and others used pumps to spray onsen waters on two thatched-roof inns that, together with a third thatched-roof inn, once purveyed a sense of majestic calmness that brought visitors from all over Japan.
By morning, only a single pillar was left standing of the two buildings at Shirabu Onsen, in Yamagata Prefecture's most southern city, Yonezawa.