Tsurunoyu Onsen
The oldest inn of the Nyūtō onsen villages, with milky sulphur water and thatched Edo-era lodgings.
Photo: Koichi Shibata, Wikimedia Commons
- Source temperature
- 58°C
- Bathing temperature
- 43°C
- Bathing
- Indoor / Outdoor
- Established
- 1638
- Accommodation
- Hotel on site
Tsurunoyu's records go back to 1638, when the lords of the Akita domain used it as a bathing retreat. The inn keeps its thatched-roof honjin building and a riverside open-air bath whose water bubbles up from the gravel bed.
Balnevia view
Why visit
It is one of Japan's most atmospheric surviving onsen: cloudy white sulphur water, wooden bath houses, snow-buried winters, and a mixed open-air bath fed directly from the source.
Recommendations
Hotels nearby
Explore places to stay near Tsurunoyu Onsen.
The water
Thermal water
- Source
- Tsurunoyu sulphur springs
- Mineralisation
- Sulphur (hydrogen sulphide) springs
- Character
- Milky white sulphur water rising through the gravel floor of the riverside open-air bath.
Practical information
A remote mountain inn — overnight stays are booked far in advance; limited day-use bathing is offered in the middle of the day. Winter access involves a shuttle from the valley road.
Location
Related places
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