Tsurunoyu Onsen

What to expect

Tsurunoyu Onsen is the oldest of the inns of Nyuto Onsenkyo, a cluster of separate hot spring inns at the foot of Mt. Nyuto (1,478 m) east of Lake Tazawa in Semboku, Akita Prefecture. It sits at the end of a forest road, a few kilometres off the main valley road, in beech woods inside Towada-Hachimantai National Park.

The inn’s own history page gives the dates. In 1638 Satake Yoshitaka, the second lord of the Akita domain, came here to take the waters, and in 1661 the lord of the Kameda domain did the same. Records of ordinary guests start in the Genroku era (1688-1704). The name comes from a story about a local hunter, Kansuke, who saw an injured crane (tsuru) healing itself in the hot water. Before that, the inn says, the spring was called Tazawa no Yu.

The look of the place is what draws the crowds. The Honjin, a long, low building with a thick thatched roof, is where the lord’s guards stayed. It is still used as guest rooms, and its thatch is cut from local susuki grass and relaid every few decades by craftsmen from the Kamishiro area. Around it are newer wings, a wooden bridge over the stream and the bath buildings.

The baths and the water

Four springs rise within 50 m of the inn, and each feeds its own bath:

• Shiroyu (white water): a sulfur-bearing sodium-calcium chloride and bicarbonate spring of the hydrogen sulfide type. It feeds the large mixed-gender open-air bath, the milky blue pool in the inn’s photos.
• Taki-no-yu: a sulfur-bearing sodium chloride and bicarbonate spring, with a utase-yu (a stream of hot water falling from above).
• Kuroyu (black water): a sodium chloride and bicarbonate spring.
• Naka-no-yu: a bicarbonate and salt spring with hydrogen sulfide.

The inn says they look alike but feel different on the skin. It does not publish temperatures or say whether any of the baths is heated or diluted. At the Yamanoyado annex, which pipes water from the same Shiroyu source, the inn describes the baths as natural flow with no recirculation.

The main open-air bath is mixed. The inn’s English page states that towels cannot be worn in any of the baths, and it says nothing about bathing wraps or swimsuits, so assume they are not allowed. The inn’s pages do not set out which of the other baths are split by gender or when, so if you would rather avoid the mixed pool, ask at the front desk which baths are men-only and women-only. Children are welcome and pay the child rate, but the main outdoor bath is a nude mixed bath, which is why we do not mark Tsurunoyu as a family pick.

Prices and booking

Day bathing (from the inn’s site and the Nyuto cooperative, checked October 2026):

• ¥700 adults, ¥300 children. Towels sold at ¥200.
• 10:00 to 15:00.
• No day bathing on Mondays, the bath cleaning day. When Monday is a public holiday, the nearest weekday becomes the cleaning day.
• Rest areas at the No. 2 building entrance, and paid rest rooms in Honjin Nos. 6 and 7.

Overnight (per person for two sharing, two meals, tax included, from November 2026 on the English page):

• No. 2 building (the toji wing, six-mat rooms, shared toilets): ¥11,700, or ¥13,570 for one person alone.
• Honjin: ¥15,550, with dinner by the irori hearth in your room.
• Shin Honjin and Higashi Honjin: ¥17,750 to ¥24,350. Some rooms have their own irori.
• No. 1 building: ¥18,080.
• In the cold months, roughly October to May, the inn adds a heating charge of about ¥1,320 per room.

Check-in is 15:00, check-out 10:00. Bookings are by phone (7:00-22:00) or through the Nihon Hitou wo Mamoru Kai (Japan Secluded Hot Spring Preservation Society) website. The inn does not take bookings by email. Rooms here are popular, so book well ahead for winter weekends.

Yamanoyado, the inn’s annex about 1 km before the main inn, is a newer wooden building in the Tohoku farmhouse style. Its rooms have their own (non-onsen) baths and toilets, and it has gender-split indoor baths and an open-air bath you can lock for private use. Rooms there run ¥17,750 to ¥23,250, and guests ride a bus to the main inn’s baths for free.

Getting there

By train and bus: take the Akita Shinkansen to JR Tazawako Station. Ugo Kotsu buses to Nyuto Onsen leave from the station about once an hour. If you are staying, call the inn to say which bus you are on; it sends a car to the Alpa Komakusa stop. Day visitors without a car have a harder time. Semboku City says the walk from the Tsurunoyu Iriguchi stop takes about 50 minutes. The Yumeguri-go shuttle that links the Nyuto inns is covered in our Kyukamura Nyuto Onsenkyo listing.

From Akita Airport: the reservation-only Akita Airport Liner shared taxi runs to the Nyuto inns. The inn puts the airport about 90 km (56 miles), roughly two hours, away by car.

By car: from Morioka IC, take Route 46 towards Akita and Route 341 at Tazawako, turn right at the Sendatsuzawa junction and drive about 13 km (8 miles) on the prefectural road. Turn left at the wooden Tsurunoyu sign and follow the Tsurunoyu forest road for about 3 km (1.9 miles), past Yamanoyado, to the inn. Semboku City puts the drive from Morioka IC at about 85 minutes. Parking is free.

When to go

Tsurunoyu is open all year. Winter is the classic time: deep drifts on the thatch and the milky pool steaming in the cold. That is also when roads are hardest and rooms hardest to get. Late September and October bring autumn colour in the beech forest. Day bathing ends at 15:00, so arrive by late morning, especially on weekends and holidays. Avoid Mondays unless you are staying.

Onsen etiquette

• Wash at the taps before you get in.
• No towels in the water, in the mixed bath or anywhere else.
• Be discreet in the mixed bath. Do not stare and do not take photos of other bathers.
• Sulfur water tarnishes silver. Leave jewellery in the coin locker.
• Tattoos: the inn publishes no policy. Ask on 0187-46-2139 before you go.

Where to stay nearby

Besides the main inn and Yamanoyado, the other Nyuto inns are spread along the valley road: Taenoyu, Kuroyu, Ganiba, Magoroku, Ogama and Kyukamura Nyuto Onsenkyo, the modern lodge with its own bus stop. Our Nyuto Onsenkyo listing covers the area as a whole. Tazawako Kogen Onsen and the hotels around Lake Tazawa are on the way back to the station, and Kakunodate’s samurai district is further down Route 46.

Safety notes

• Sulfur gas and heat: soak in short spells and get out if you feel light-headed. Do not bathe after drinking.
• Snow and ice: the forest road and the paths between buildings are snowy in winter. Use winter tyres and boots with grip.
• Remote location: there are no shops nearby. Bring cash and fill up with fuel in Tazawako.
• Slippery boards and stones: the bath floors are wet wood and rock. Walk slowly.