Hot springs in Nyuto Onsen

Tsuru-no-yu is the oldest of the seven inns at Nyuto, set deep in a beech forest in Akita Prefecture. The main draw is a large outdoor mixed-bathing pool fed by opaque, milky-white sulfurous water. Many regard it as the most beautiful onsen setting in Japan. People come here to put some distance between themselves and the rest of the world for a while.

Ofuka Onsen sits at roughly 1,100 meters in the Hachimantai highland of Akita Prefecture, a compact and out-of-the-way spring that opens each year from early May through mid-October. The water is a straightforward sulfur type and flows in generous volume. What draws most visitors is the ondol, platforms warmed from below by geothermal steam rising through the ground. This form of heat therapy has deep roots in northeast Asia but is uncommon in Japan.

Deep in Towada-Hachimantai National Park, seven small hot spring inns sit among beech forest with few roads connecting them to the outside world. Each inn draws from its own source and has a distinct atmosphere. A pass called the yumeguri-cho covers entry to all seven, letting visitors move between them over the course of a stay. Few onsen groupings anywhere in Japan feel as genuinely remote as this one.