Places to stay are graded on a 0-100 scale. The higher the grade, the easier it is for travellers to find restaurants and things to do within walking distance.
Unlike most of the onsen which have been catering for travelers, this hot spring is rather a primitive one. There is only cold water inside so forget about taking a decent bath like you probably did somewhere else. Bring towel (bath towel sold at 1100jpy and small towel sold at 200jpy) if possible.
Read more
Date of stay: January 2021
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This onsen is the oldest in Nyuoto area, and was frequented by the feudal lord of Akita. Its history goes back to 1600 and it has no shortage of old charm. The highlight of this property is certainly a wonderful quality of water and a mild outdoor mixed bath, where you can soak with your other half without compromising your modesty. The entrance to the bath from woman's change room is hidden, so you already come in submerged. The temperature is just perfect and it is so milky, no one can see anything. There are 9 baths in total in this onsen, including gender specific and private ones. And the quality of water is outstanding. So, if you love onsen, it's worth the experience. We stayed overnight in a simple room with no toilet or shower, and it was fine. Dinner and breakfast were great, heaps of food, full of flavour. There is plenty of old charm, and definitely worth a trip if you a fan of onsen like me, and old Japanese things in general. The place is quite hard to book, as the hosts speak very little English. I booked through Japanese Guest Houses, 6 months in advance. Overall, I loved the Nyuto Onsen-kyo area and Akita, and would love to return to Akita to explore more of its remoteness, hotsprings, history, alpine areas and delicious cousine.
Read more
Date of stay: February 2020
Location
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Stayed here in the winter. The entire place was blanketed in snow. Its a very magical atmosphere in the snow. The outdoor onsen bath is huge, beautiful and the water has a very interesting milky blue colour.
The price is very cheap for onsen standards but the rooms are small and bathrooms shared. Food is basic but very fresh and healthy. The room i stayed at was in a hundreds of years old wooden building, so it really is from another era.
Its a busy hotel with lots of foreign tourists as it is extremely famous. Hotel pick up can get very cramped with everyone's luggage, and it includes guests from other hotels in the nearby area. So we opted for a taxi on the way back to the train station.
For a luxury onsen experience, this is not it. Though it is an experience you cant get anywhere else.
Read more
Date of stay: January 2020
Value
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I'm really like onsen in winter because I'm from tropical country. It's a unique experience for me. This ryokan gives that. I could enjoy warm bathing with forest and snow as view.
The price is quite cheap if compared with another ryokan in the area. You can book starting 6 months in advance. It's suggested to book 6 months in advance because it's pretty popular. You can't book it online. I tried to call it directly, The first receptionist can't speak English and she put me on hold. Then the second receptionist help me with the booking with limited English. But it worked... :)
If you booked for overnight stay, you can ask for help at Tazawako train station's tourist information centre. They will help you to arrange the transport from Arupa Komakusa bus stop to the ryokan. You also can keep your luggage at the information centre (with fee).
Read more
Date of stay: January 2021
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
These reviews are machine translated from their original language. Show machine translations?
Among the hot springs in the Nyuto Onsenkyo hot spring resort scattered at the foot of Mt. Nyuto, located east of Lake Tazawa in Akita Prefecture, Tsuru no Yu Onsen is the oldest and most popular hot spring inn.
This is the inn we were most looking forward to on our trip to northern Tohoku. This extremely popular inn has a limited number of rooms. Reservations are accepted from 7am on the 1st, six months before the date of stay. We planned to visit in early October, so we waited until 7am on April 1st to call. However, we couldn't get through. We must have called dozens of times. We kept calling for over three hours. Just after 10am, we finally got through.
A little over six months later, we arrived at Tsuru no Yu Onsen, located in the forest at the foot of Mt. Nyuto, where you can feel the signs of autumn. Our guest room was in a place called Shinhonjin, the only one with a toilet in the room, and dinner was served in the room. As well as the huge, extremely famous milky white open-air mixed bathing bath, there are also hot and dark spring baths, as well as several private baths which use these waters. Day-trippers are only allowed between 10am and 3pm, after which it is only available to overnight guests, so it never gets crowded. We thoroughly enjoyed the secret hot springs, including the following morning. Both dinner and breakfast, including the famous mountain yam hotpot, featured a variety of dishes made with an abundance of mountain produce, and were simple yet delicious.
Read more
Date of stay: October 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I was able to stay at Tsuru no Yu Onsen, which I had always wanted to do! I stayed in a single room in Building 2. It was a traditional six-tatami room. The building is old-fashioned, but the bathroom and other facilities have been comfortably renovated. And because it's deep in the mountains, it's normal for bugs to appear. There are many baths, including indoor baths, open-air baths, and mixed-gender open-air baths, and depending on the time of day, you can enjoy them privately. The mixed-gender open-air bath in particular is fantastic with its pale milky water. Day-trip bathing is too crowded, so I strongly recommend staying overnight. The meals are served in a large hall-like setting, and the simple food is also great. The potato stew and salt-grilled rock trout on the hearth are especially delicious. The drinks are very reasonably priced, which is great for drinkers. You'll feel at ease in this rural hot spring where you can experience the good old Japanese culture. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone looking for a neat and tidy inn. I really wanted to visit in all four seasons, especially when it's autumn leaves or snow scenery. If possible, I would like to stay multiple nights next time.
Read more
Date of stay: April 2024Trip type: Travelled with friends
Room Tip:日帰り入浴ではなく、宿泊を強くオススメします。
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
To be fair, I would probably prefer to give it 4.5, but I can't give it 5. If you want to see Japan in a bit more depth this is an ideal place. Some might find it not quite as 21st century as they are used to, but that is part of the charm. The included meals are of a very good standard and the staff understand if you want to eat at a table with chairs. Meals are served in your room.
Read more
Date of stay: October 2022
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:Wear slip on shoes!
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
I went to the middle of a three-day holiday. It was a great crowd, and I enjoyed the atmosphere, although I could only put hot water and black water
Tsuru no Yu as an Inn I'd love to visit in winter.
Read more
Automatically translated
Date of stay: October 2024Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Tsurunoyu is a hidden out of the way Traditional Onsen + Japanese Hotel property. Here, you sleep Japanese (tatami), you eat Japanese (not that Teriyaki crap you have at home), and you speak Japanese (No one speaks enough English for communication here). Tsurunoyu is also a member of the Japan Association of Secluded Hot Spring Inns (HITOU), google it and you'll find a list of hotel onsen just like this all across the country.
**Reservation**
This property is sometime available through the English site of certain Japanese booking sites, such as Jalan, but most of the time only a few rooms will be made available to be booked through an English speaking channel. If you couldn't find this place on a booking site, doesn't mean that the place is full, it means you'll need to call the hotel in person to get the booking done. YOU WILL NEED SOMEONE WHO SPEAK JAPANESE to get that done. Their contact details can be found on Japan Association of Secluded Hot Spring Inns (HITOU) website.
Location:
As a member of the "SECLUDED" Hot Spring Inns, I can double reassure you that this place is totally in the middle of nowhere. It is so far out in the middle of nowhere, it feels like the guests in the hotel are the only people left on the planet; and the feeling is absolutely amazing.
But be reminded, once you arrived, you're here. There is no going out for site-seeing as you're in the middle of no where. But the Hotel it-selves is an excellent site, relax and enjoy the onsen for a day or two.
Getting There:
Find your way to arrive into JR Tazawako Station, this is the closest train station from the Onsen. From there, you may catch a bus that runs few times a day, where it has a stop right at the front door of Tsurunoyu. If you'll be staying overnight, you may contact the hotel to give you a ride, but good luck if you don't speak Japanese.
Driving is an excellent option, as it gives you magnificent view of the mountain, especially in the winter. The mountain service road that leads to the onsen is actually pretty well maintained, hence it is safe to drive on. All rental cars in Japan comes to free GPS, and most providers (e.g. Toyota, Times, Nissan) have it in English display and instruction.
Services:
Typical Japanese hospitality, outstanding but a bit robotic. But I do have to specially thanks the front desk for arranging a room for us, despite that I booked my stay for the next night by mistake. Staffs are very attentive and will cater to most of your requests as long as is possible to be arranged in the middle of no where.
Food:
All your meals should be included in your rate, if they're not, make sure you call and request for a paid meal in advance, as they will not accommodate last minute meal requests. **IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE** You're once again reminded you'll living in the middle of nowhere, I mean absolutely no where. There will be no where for you to buy food what-so-ever, so it is important for you to arrange your meal with the Onsen prior to your arrival. And if you're the type that get hungry easily, please make sure that you bring enough snakes for your consumption during the stay, again, this place have nothing to treat your hungriness outside of meal hours.
Your breakfast will be served in the large breakfast hall on the ground floor of the main building in a large break fast hall, while your dinner will be in your room. You'll be eating Japanese (Japanese Japanese, not the Teriyaki Crap that you usually eat), and if that's problem for you, let the kitchen know in advance.
This hotel has a specialty beer that the onsen brew themselves, it wasn't all too expensive, and it sure will compliment your meal well.
Rooms and Sleep Quality:
All rooms are in traditional Japanese layout, which means you'll be sleeping on Tatami. You're in the middle of nowhere, so noise is an non-issue. You'll find yourself sleeping like a baby here!
The first 5 rooms on the left after the main entrance were build a hundred years ago, and it still retain the look and few of the 1900s, you'll need to book waaaaaaay ahead for one of those rooms.
Onsen:
There are 2 large outdoor onsen, which one of them are dedicated women only and the other one is a mixed one. There are also a number of indoor onsen, they're small but it provides you with more privacy and that's also the place where you'll shower. The out door onsen is spectacular, one of the best I've experienced in recent years.
Tips:
1. WiFi doesn't exist here, why would you wanna be tight down to the phone when you could be enjoying mother nature. But if staying connected is very important to you, make sure you acquire a 3G/4G tourist sim prior or upon your arrival into Japan. They are available through major international gateways such as Narita, Haneda, Chubu, Osaka..., but if you happen to arrive through a smaller local airport, the chances of you ever seeing one is slim.
2. The closest airport from the onsen is the Akita Airport, which is served by JAL from Tokyo Heneda 3x daily.
3. Car Rental is available in both Akita Airport and JR Akita Station, you may pick your car up here and return it elsewhere. But do be aware that if your destination is Tokyo, a higher than normal one way fee will be charged to your rental. What I did was return my car in Fukushima and took JR for my the way down to Tokyo. (This makes no financial sense if you're travelling in a group of more than 2 people).
Enjoy your stay and have fun!
Read more
Date of stay: February 2016
Value
Cleanliness
Service
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Me and my partner went to the 400 year old Tsurunoyu Onsen on 24th December 2012 to spend our Christmas eve during our year end Japan trip. We heard about it through a Japanese friend and did some research on it on Tripadvisor (Thanks Adrain for the advise given!)) and blogs. Their main website is this : http://www.tsurunoyu.com/english.html. We were initially apprehensive about booking and getting there as we do not speak Japanese but discovered that it was a breeze.
My friend called the onsen about a month before our trip and though they speak little English, they were accomodating and helpful enough to reserve us a room without much fuss. So don't be worried, just call them and ask for someone who can speak English! They will recommend you a room and tell you how much it will cost per person.
Getting to the onsen looked kind of difficult but it really isn't. All you need to do is to use the JR East English website and reserve your Shinkansen ticket toward Akita (all seats are reserved so you need to reserve at least one day beforehand). If you have a JR Pass, it is covered and you will not have to pay anything more for the 2.5 hours Shinkansen trip. After you get to the JR Tazawako station, just ask the Station Master for bus tickets to the Onsen (600 Yen) and he will advise you on the timing (a bus leaves every hour). The bus station is just outside the JR station to the right of the main entrance. Once you decided on the timing, call the Onsen again to inform them on your bus departure timing and they will arrange a mini bus to go fetch you from the Tourist centre at Arupa Komakusa. It is a 40 minute trip from JR Tazawako station to Arupa Komakusa Visitor Centre and another 20 mins in mini bus sent by the onsen.
When we arrived, as it was late December, the onsen and its buildings were covered by snow. Needless to say, it was beautiful. The buildings are traditional and old (some parts are supposed to be at least 400 years old!) but very well maintained. As the onsen hotel is located within the mountains and there are no shops around so if you are the sort that needs tibits and extra food, its best to buy them before you leave the JR Tazawako Station. Also there is no mobile network at the hotel so those of you who needs internet to survive be warned!
There are several onsen pools on this property. The smaller indoor ones (fit 2 or 3 at most) are sex- separated but the ladies get another two larger outdoor ones. However, the main attraction is the scenic large outdoor pool which is featured in many of the photographs you see of this property. It is a mixed pool and everyone goes in naked. Nothing beats soaking in that pool at around 10pm (nobody else was there as the local tourist - 98% of the occupants, sleeps early) with the snow falling from above. This pool is also not that hot compared to the indoor ones and so it is comfortable for those of us who are not used to onsens.
The room we got was one of the largest on the properly and like all rooms here, it was a traditional Japanese room. It was clean and spacious and could probably sleep 6 to 8 people comfortably. We had a small stream outside our window and it was great to fall asleep with the sound of the stream water trickling past below our window. There were no extra electrical sockets in the room so you can't really charge any of your electrical devices while on the property. Do bring extra fully charged batteries for your phones and cameras.
Dinner and breakfast were inclusive in the price quoted and it was a traditional Japanese meals with lots of plates served in our room for dinner and in a dining hall below our room for breakfast. The food consist of preserved wild vegetables, little meats and a very tasty fish for both meals. Toilets are shared for each floor and there are like only 2 showers points in the section of the building we were staying in but that was not a problem as there were few guests to contest for the use of these facilities.
We spend about 11,500 Yen (all in) each for a night's stay at the onsen. It is definitely worth the money to spend a night in such a historic and beautiful property. Highly recommended.
Read more
Date of stay: December 2012
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Travelled as a couple
Room Tip:We were allocated the "Willow" room. It was one of the biggest room on the property...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
The bathing areas are available at all hours to overnight guests. There are days (once per week) when bathing areas are not accessible during specific times for maitenance/cleaning
The timings of the bus from Tazawako Station to Alpa Komakusa Bus Stop are 06:55, 07:45, 08:45, 09:40, 10:40, 12:25, 13:20, 14:20, 15:35, 16:35, 17:20, 18:20. Journey time is about 35 mins. You can try searching under Ugokotsu bus for their timetable in japanese. Alternatively, make your booking through Japanese Guest Houses. Their service is great and they would gladly help you with the travel timings and directions.
Prices are the average nightly price provided by our partners and may not include all taxes and fees. Taxes and fees that are shown are estimates only. Please see our partners for more details.
Is This Your Tripadvisor Listing?
Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.
