Takinoue Onsen Ryukanso

Takinoue Onsen lies at the far end of the Kakkonda Gorge in Shizukuishi, Iwate, inside Towada-Hachimantai National Park and the Minami-Hachimantai recreation forest. It sits just above Torigoe Falls, and more than a hundred small springs are said to rise upstream. The spring was already known to some people around 1683, and Ryukanso is an inn with a history of more than 200 years, set among beech forest.

The source is Takinoue Onsen (Daini Torigoe no Yu), a simple sulfur spring with a slightly acidic pH of 4.5. The water leaves the ground at 63.4 C. It is free-flowing, piped to the bath without added water, and the bath itself is hot at about 45 C. Steam rising from the mountainside can be seen from the bath.

The bathhouse is a single indoor bath on the ground floor, with one bath each for men and women and three washing stations. Day-trip bathing is available from 10:00 to 17:00 (last reception) for 700 yen per adult and 300 yen per child (age 4 to elementary school). Overnight stays are room-only, with 12 Japanese-style and 4 Western-style rooms and a shared self-catering kitchen. The prefectural road closes in winter, so the inn is closed from mid-November to mid-May.