sharla

Tsurunoyu Onsen Resort 🍂 Akita, Northern Japan

Added 2020-11-02 14:59:00 +0000 UTC

I spent Halloween weekend at Tsurunoyu Onsen Resort in Akita Prefecture. It is only about a one hour drive from where I live in Morioka! I've been to many onsen resorts during my time in Japan and this one is my favourite. The outdoor scenery is breathtaking. Some believe that winter is the best season to enjoy this resort, but my vote goes to fall🍁How could you possibly beat these colours!!

The onsen has several different outdoor baths. Most are split into womens-only and mens-only baths, but the main bath (with the milky water in my photos) is actually mixed gender, so anyone is allowed in. You have to go in naked, no towels or bathing suits allowed, so it might not be everyone's cup of tea😅

I like to wait until it's dark, the bath is very dimly lit at nighttime so it feels a little less awkward. They have a special entrance for women to use where you can enter the water in a secluded area before making your way out into the main bath. Since the water is very milky coloured once you're in not much shows, so as long as you don't stand up no one will see your naked body haha.

Inside the lodge there are also private baths that guests can use (the indoor bath in my photos). They are free to use at any time, you can just lock the door while you're in there so no one comes in.

There are several types of rooms to choose from, but they average at about 10,000 yen a night. This is actually extremely reasonable for an onsen resort, often they are priced in the 30,000-40,000 yen range!

Japan is currently holding a nation-wide travel campaign to encourage domestic travel, so I got 35% off and was given 9000 yen in vouchers that I could use at almost any store within Northern Japan. (I of course went to LOFT and did some stationery shopping, haha. Christmas card shopping is sorted!)

Unfortunately Tsurunoyu is extremely popular and if you want to reserve a room you need to do so months in advance. They also don't speak English, and you can only reserve by phone so it's a huge pain in the ass. My advice would be to get a Japanese friend or maybe a travel company to help you make the reservation.

Here's the website if you want to check it out: http://www.tsurunoyu.com/english.html