Tsuru no Yu Onsen

Tsurunoyu Onsen is one of the seven inns of Nyuto Onsenkyo and is considered the oldest hot spring ryokan in the area. Access from Akita Airport takes about 180 minutes by Airport Liner. The name "Tsurunoyu" is said to come from a local hunter named Kansuke, who discovered an injured crane healing its wounds in the hot spring—an episode that became the inn’s enduring name. The thatched-roof Honjin is the ryokan’s signature building, originally used as quarters for guards when the second lord of the Akita Domain, Satake Yoshitaka, visited for therapeutic bathing. The thatch is renewed every few decades by harvesting susuki grass from the Obonai Shimotakano area, letting it season through one winter, and then having skilled thatchers known as "kayade" from the Jindai Umezawa area rethatch it using traditional methods. Within a radius of about 50 meters, the inn has four different hot spring sources with distinct mineral qualities. Shiroyu is known as the "beauty bath" and is also called the "chill-relief bath." Kuroyu is called the "warming bath" and the "fertility bath," Naka-no-yu is known as the "eye bath," and Taki-no-yu is, as the name suggests, a waterfall-style pour-over bath. Although the water may look similar in color, it is said to be extremely rare for four hot springs with different properties and benefits to spring up from the same grounds. Dining features Tsurunoyu’s original miso-based mountain yam hotpot, along with mountain vegetables served on Kawatsura lacquerware trays and tateyaki-style grilled char (iwana) with salt.