Tazawako Onsen

The area near Lake Tawaka is renowned for its onsen and many of the hotels and ryokans in the area have their own hot spring baths.

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Nyuto Onsen is probably the most famous onsen area near Tazawako, which is about 7km away from the ski area. “Nyuto” literally means “nipple” and it’s not because many of the onsens in the area have mixed bathing! It’s named Nyuto due to the shape of a nearby mountain, and don’t fear about the mixed bathing because the Nyuto Onsen water is renowned for a milky white appearance that’s not transparent! The Nyuto ryokan tend to accept non-guests if you bathe during daytime hours.

Tsurunoyu Onsen is one of the famous onsen at Nyuto Onsen. It is a historic ryokan and some of the buildings still have thatched rooves. It’s situated in a pretty valley that collects lots of snow and has steep terrain above it with large avalanche fences to protect the ryokan. In addition to a lovely ladies-only outdoor bath and small indoor baths for each gender, it has a large mixed gender rotenburo. The ladies have a special entrance where they can enter the water behind a rock wall and once in the bath, can remain discrete because the water is not translucent.