Tsurunoyu Onsen (Hot Spring), Akita

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Tiredness and stress on everyday life will melt in hot water

In Akita Prefecture, there are many diverse secret hot springs that you would like to visit once, including “Nyuto Onsen Hot Spring Area” a famous nationwide secret hot spring. It may be a bit tough until you get there, but if you take a hot spring of admiration watching the spectacular view of nature, tiredness and stress on everyday life will melt in hot water.
“Nyuto Onsen Hot Spring Area” famous enough to be taken up not only in Japan but also overseas media. At the foot of Nyuto Mountain in Towada Hachiman National Park, there are seven inns and hot springs of various spring fountains are famous as secret hot water that you want to visit once. Among them, “Tsurunoyu Onsen” Hot Spring boasting the oldest history is called Japan’s most famous secret hot spring and it is very popular. Tsurunoyu Onsen is a ryokan with the oldest history, about 380 years old, at “Nyuto Onsen Hot Spring Area” at the foot of Nyuto Mountain.

This inn is located so as to be hidden in the nature, you can get to the bus from JR Tazawako station and you can reach by taking a shuttle bus. Four sources with different spring quality are drawn in the premises. It is unusual nationwide that different hot springs are producing different efficacy and spring quality from the same premises.
There is a taste of thatched-roofed tenement “Honjin” like an open set of movies. It is the oldest hot spring in the “Nyuto Onsen Hot Spring Area” known as the Akita lord’s spa. There are 4 kinds of sources, milky mixed bathing outdoor bath, female exclusive open-air bath, cascading bath, inner bath, and so on.
One day bathing is open from 10:00 to 15:30 (reception is open until 15:00). The fee for one day bathing is 600 yen for adults, 300 yen for elementary school students, and 100 yen for preschool kids.

Charms and Highlights of Tsurunoyu Hot Spring

“Tsuru no Yu” has four springs

The beginning of the oldest “Tsuru no Yu” dates back to the Edo period. This was once used as “Tojiba” (therapeutic bath) of feudal lord of Akita domain. There is still a tenement house with a thatched roof where the warriors stayed for guarding the lord. This tenement is called “Honjin”.
You can stay at this “Honjin”, but it is very popular with Japanese tourists as well as foreign tourists recently, and it is very difficult to make reservations on the day before holidays. It is said to be one of the hottest inns in Japan that are difficult to reserve.

Speaking of hot springs, generally there are many colorless and transparent hot waters. Nyuto Onsenkyo has 7 hot spring inns, each with a slightly different spring quality. “Tsuru no Yu” has four springs, named “White Hot Water”, “Black Hot Water”, “Naka no Yu Hot Water” and “Waterfall Hot Water”. The most famous is “White Hot Water”.
Milky white water is like a milk bath. It is also called ‘Bijin-no-yu’ (a hot spring of beauty), and it is said that once bathing it is warm, it is difficult to cool down later.
A skilled hot water guard adjusts the source to the right temperature according to the humidity, temperature, etc. of the day, so you may be immersed a little longer than usual.
A thatched roof, wooden building. Mountain food hanging on the eaves. A stream runs under the bridge that leads to the hot springs, and a pampas grass is blowing in the wind around it. The original scenery of Japan remains, with fewer opportunities to see in the city center.
“Tsuru no Yu” after sunset is a fantastic view that is different from the calm of the daytime. It feels like a time trip in the previous era.

Cherry blossoms in spring, fresh green in summer, autumn leaves in autumn, and snow in winter. One of the attractions is the atmosphere of Japanese folktales that makes you feel nostalgic throughout the seasons.

“Nyuto Onsenkyo” (hot-spring area)

There is a mountain called “Nyuto-san” (Mt. Nyuto), because form is similar to the breast of the woman from a distance, around Lake Towada of Akita.
The hot-spring village consisting of eight hot-spring hotels, which is dotted in the foot of Mt. Nyuto, is “Nyuto Onsenkyo” (hot-spring area). It is the unexplored hot spring that overflowed in gifts of the earth, you can soak in the hot spring which just sprang out, while being surrounded by the primeval forests of the beech.

The place especially deep in the mountain

Above all, it is “Tsurunoyu Onsen” (hot water of the crane) that is in the place especially deep in the mountain.
In the old days, a hunter of Akita found the figure that a damaged crane heals a wound with hot water of the hot spring, so it is said that it just remained in the name of “hot water of the crane”.

Special snowy area

Senboku-shi, Akita where there is Nyuto Onsenkyo, is counted as the special snowy area in a heavy snowfall area.
Among them, Tsurunoyu Onsen is conducted during the winter season to overcome many barriers like removing snow for securing of road, the maintenance of the infrastructure.

The history and culture

The Tsurunoyu Onsen is “a hot-spring sanatorium” since the Edo period.
There is the history and culture as a place to heal the farmer growing fatigue, sometimes people with an intractable disease from the distant place.

The big tourist attraction

Among eight hot-spring hotels of Nyuto Onsenkyo, seven hotels are open now in the winter season, it becomes the big tourist attraction as the tourist of approximately 130,000 visit the village annually.

Information(Access, Price/Charge, Tel, Address, Official site, etc.)

Name:	Tsurunoyu Onsen (Hot Spring)
Adresse:	Tazawakotazawa Senboku, Akita 014-1204 Japan
Access:	JR Akita Shinkansen Line “Tazawako-eki Station” (30 minutes by car)
Tel:	(+81) 187-46-2139
Price:	Room fees 8,550 yen ~ 15,900 yen Tax included During the winter time, heating fees of 1,050 yen per room are charged. Please refer the official web page.
Official site:	http://www.tsurunoyu.com/