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Iwate Shizukuishi Town

Kyukamura Iwate Amihari Onsen

An inn halfway up Mount Iwate where you make your way around five baths of natural onsen fed straight from the source

  • Amihari Onsen
  • Scenic View
  • Nature Immersion
  • Natural Hot Spring
  • Free-flow from source

About Kyukamura Iwate Amihari Onsen

Kyukamura Iwate Amihari Onsen is a resort hotel in Shizukuishi, Iwate District, Iwate Prefecture. Set halfway up Mount Iwate, deep within Towada-Hachimantai National Park, it offers natural onsen with 1,300 years of history, rising from an old crater and fed straight from the source, never recirculated, in five baths inside and outside the building. The milky water, tinged with blue and carrying the scent of sulfur, changes in cloudiness and scent with the season and the flow of the mountain streams. There is the main bathhouse with indoor and open-air baths, a wood-paneled indoor bath that keeps the feel of an old toji (therapeutic bathing) retreat, the bathhouse of the annex across a suspension bridge, a rustic open-air bath by a stream reached on foot through the forest, and a foot bath on a boardwalk. Making your way around these baths, each with its own character, becomes a journey in itself. From the open-air bath, the farmland of Shizukuishi and the peaks of the Ou Mountains spread out before you, and on clear nights the sky pours down its stars.

Hot SpringONSEN

Free-flow from source

Main bathhouse

The main bathing area, with a bright indoor bath lit through large windows and an open-air bath swept by highland breezes. From the open-air bath, the farmland of Shizukuishi lies below and the ridgeline of the Ou Mountains stretches in the distance, so you can watch the seasons change while immersed in the water. The milky, sulfur-scented water wraps the skin softly and carries its warmth deep into the body. On clear nights it becomes a bath under a sky full of stars, and in winter a silent bath with a view of the snow, showing a different face with each hour and season. It is open from early morning until late at night, so you can return as many times as you like during your stay.

Free-flow from source

Main bathhouse (indoor bath)

An indoor bath with wood-paneled wainscoting and rows of wood-grain buckets and stools, keeping much of the feel of an old toji bathing retreat. Water constantly overflows the small tub, kept slightly hot, and it warms the body quickly. In the quiet room where the scent of sulfur rises, there is no needless ornament, only time spent with the water itself. After bathing, cooling off on the terrace in front of the bath is one of the pleasures, and in winter you can watch icicles growing from the eaves. Precisely because the setting is so simple, the power of this land’s water comes through directly.

Free-flow from source

Day-use onsen

The bathhouse of the annex, reached on foot from the main building along a boardwalk and across a suspension bridge; hotel guests can use it free of charge. The men’s and women’s sides each have an indoor bath and an open-air bath, and from the open-air bath you can take in the whole sweep of Shizukuishi’s farmland beyond the foot of the mountain. It stands near the spot where this water was first opened as a toji bathing retreat in the early Meiji era, and as you sink into the tub, you understand on your own skin why people kept seeking out this water. Inside there are a restaurant, a spacious rest area and a comic library, so you can take your time after bathing too. The open-air bath may be closed in winter.

Free-flow from source

Rustic open-air bath

A rustic open-air bath beside a stream with a waterfall, reached on foot through the forest from the hotel entrance. Past separate changing huts for men and women, there is a single tub built of stacked rocks, used as a mixed bath. You are wrapped in the sound of the waterfall and the murmur of the stream right beside you, and looking up, you see only branches, leaves and sky. With the steam rising, the scene feels like another world, hard to believe it is just a short walk away. Bathing wraps are sold on site, and you can also use your own. It is closed while there is snow, a bath open only in the green seasons.

Free-flow from source

Foot bath

A foot bath with a wooden tub, set along the boardwalk linking the hotel and the annex. As you sink your feet into the hot water, a gentle warmth spreads from your legs through your whole body, and a body tired from walking slowly lets go. You can see as far as the city of Morioka in the distance, and sitting here listening to the trees sway in the wind, you lose track of time. It makes a good short rest as you make your way around the baths, or a fine end to a walk. It is closed in the snow season, a pleasure from the fresh green of spring to late autumn.

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Facility Information

Address
14-3 Komatsukura, Nagayama, Shizukuishi, Iwate District, Iwate 020-0585
Business Hours
05:30〜00:00

[Day bathing] 10:00–15:00 (last entry 14:00) / Day-use onsen at the annex: 9:00–17:00 (until 18:00 on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays)

Closed Days
Irregular Holidays
Gender Access
Gender Separated
Tattoo Policy (Communal Bath)
OK if fully covered with designated stickers

For the rustic open-air bath in the forest, the official guidance states that guests with tattoos too large to cover cannot use it.

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