Togo Onsen

The San-in coast of Tottori is the part of Japan that travelers on the standard Kyoto-Hiroshima circuit mostly skip, and the towns along it benefit from that. From Kurayoshi, a small bus route follows the coast east to the edge of Lake Togo, a shallow brackish lagoon that sits between low hills on the landward side and a narrow sand bar separating it from the Japan Sea. The lake is four square kilometers of still water that changes color through the day, grey in the morning, green in the afternoon, orange at dusk, and the town of Yurihama wraps around its southern shore with its hotels and inns positioned to catch the lake view at every angle.

The water at Togo Onsen comes from an unusual origin. The spring sources are located under the lakebed itself, which makes Togo one of the only onsen towns in Japan where the hot water rises directly through lake sediment before being piped to the inns. The spring is classified as sodium-calcium chloride and sodium sulfate, emerging at temperatures between 85 and 94 degrees Celsius at the source, which requires substantial dilution before bathing. It is clear in the tub, with a faint mineral quality that you taste if any gets on your lips. The sodium and calcium content gives it the same body-warming characteristic you find in coastal salt springs, and the sulfate component adds a slight slipperiness that makes your skin feel finished after a soak.

The cultural detail that distinguishes Togo Onsen from the other lake-edge onsen towns of western Japan is the Hanakairo plum orchard event held in the surrounding hills each February and March. The hillsides above the lake hold several thousand ume plum trees, and when they flower in late winter, the white and pink blossoms open while snow still sits on the higher ground, and the combination of cold air, blossom smell, and lake view from the outdoor baths is specific to this time and place. Sitting in an outdoor bath facing the lake while the plum smell comes through the steam is the experience that repeat visitors to Togo tend to describe first.

The town itself is small and unhurried. The lakefront promenade, the public footbath pavilion near the central bus stop, and the wooden walkways connecting the older inns all give Togo the feeling of a place that attracts people who already know what they want rather than visitors who need to be sold on something. The coastal road continues east to Misasa Onsen and the Tottori sand dunes if you want to keep moving, but Togo is a reasonable argument for staying put. The view from any lakeside outdoor bath at dusk, with the Japan Sea visible just beyond the sand bar and the hills settling into dark blue, is worth the detour from wherever you were going.