Shimofuro Onsen Tsubota Ryokan

Tsubota Ryokan is a small eleven-room inn in the Shimofuro hot spring town on the Shimokita Peninsula of Aomori Prefecture, the northernmost hot spring resort on Honshu. Shimofuro appears as Yumoto on a map from the Kosho era of the Muromachi period and prospered in the Edo period as a therapeutic bathing ground of the Nanbu domain; the traveler Sugae Masumi recorded that the village had two springs, Oyu and Shinyu. Tsubota Ryokan opened in the early Showa era and has more than ninety years of history. Its two-storey building, rebuilt in 1996, stands beside the former Shinyu public bathhouse, higher up the slope than any other inn and closest to the source itself.

The inn draws on the Shinyu system, one of Shimofuro's two spring lines, and its water is neutral in contrast to the acidic Oyu system. The posted analysis lists it as a sulfur-bearing sodium chloride-sulfate spring (hypotonic, neutral, high temperature) with a pH of 6.92 and a source temperature of 95C. The sulfur scent is strong, and the color shifts with the weather from milky white to a greenish grey and occasionally to clear. There is no chlorination, no reheating and no recirculation: the 95C source pours straight into the tub, so bathers themselves add cold water and stir the bath before entering.

Bathing consists of one indoor bath each for men and women. The women's bath is built of Aomori hiba cypress and seats two to four; the men's bath holds five to eight. Taps, showers, rinse-in shampoo and a hairdryer are provided, and overnight guests may bathe around the clock except during cleaning. Day visitors can bathe from 7:00 to 21:00 using the town's Yumeguri pass, valid at three facilities for 1,000 yen; other arrangements require an inquiry. Overnight stays run roughly 8,800 to 13,200 yen with two meals, and winter menus feature Shimofuro's celebrated monkfish. Free parking for a total of eight cars is available in two lots.