Nuruyu Onsen Goto Onsen Kyakusha

Goto Onsen Kyakusha is a traditional toji (therapeutic-bathing) lodging in Nuruyu Onsen, part of the Kuroishi Onsen district in the eastern part of Kuroishi City, Aomori Prefecture, along a tributary of the Asaishi River. Nuruyu Onsen was opened about 400 years ago and is the oldest hot spring in the Kuroishi Onsen district, where a distinctive culture of kyakusha, lodgings clustered around a communal bathhouse, developed. Of the nine kyakusha that once lined the street, only Goto Onsen Kyakusha remains today, preserving Japan's only surviving kyakusha where guests can still stay overnight.

The spring is a sodium chloride spring with a source temperature of about 55 degrees Celsius and a weakly alkaline pH of around 7.9. Colorless, transparent and slightly salty, it warms the body so well that it came to be called Nuruyu. It is said to be effective for neuralgia, muscle pain, joint pain and chronic rheumatism, and the free-flowing source water can be enjoyed at the Tsuru no Meito communal bathhouse directly opposite the lodging.

The kyakusha itself offers only accommodation and has no bath of its own; guests bathe at the Nuruyu Onsen communal bathhouse Tsuru no Meito directly across the street. The bathhouse is open from 5:00 to 22:00 (last entry 21:30), with admission of 350 yen for adults and 100 yen for children. The kyakusha has ten rooms, with one night and breakfast starting from 5,000 yen, and also accommodates room-only stays and long-term therapeutic bathing.