Feature · 4 min read
Which Asahidake Onsen bath should you take after the ropeway?
Asahidake Onsen is a handful of inns where Route 1160 runs out at about 1,100 metres under Hokkaido's highest peak. The ropeway drops you beside them at the end of the day, and they pour an uncommon clear sulphate spring.
By Adam BognarPublished
Take the day bath at Yukomanso if the water matters most to you. The inn runs five of its own springs between 33 and 42°C without heating them, and it has a rotenburo. Hotel Bear Monte is the easy choice three minutes on foot from the ropeway, at ¥1,140 with an outdoor sauna, though its bath has no outdoor tub. Neither inn publishes a tattoo policy, so ask before you pay.
Asahidake Onsen sits at the foot of the Asahidake Ropeway in Higashikawa. Our Asahidake backcountry feature covers the riding. This piece covers what happens after the last car down.
How do the ropeway and the baths fit together?
The ropeway reopens after its autumn break on 11 December and runs from 9:00 to 15:40 through February, with cars every 20 minutes and about ten minutes to the top station at 1,600 m. Hours stretch to 16:00 in early March and 17:00 from mid-March into May. A return ticket costs ¥2,800 and a one-way ¥1,700 for anyone of junior high age or older between 1 November and 31 May. Bring cash for it. The ropeway is shut from 16 November to 10 December 2026, and parking at the base is free from November to May.
Bear Monte opens its bath to day visitors at 12:30. Spend the morning lapping the cold snow below Sugatami Station until your legs go, and you can be in the water within minutes of the last descent.
What is Yukomanso's bath like?
Yukomanso owns five sources of its own between 33 and 42°C and uses them as they come out of the ground, with no heating. You choose a tub by temperature. Start in the hottest to bring the blood back to frozen toes. The cooler tubs are where you can sit for ages without cooking. Two large bathrooms swap between men and women each day, and the inn has a rotenburo as well.
Day entry costs ¥1,200. Rent a bath towel for ¥300 and a face towel for ¥200. The inn publishes no day-bathing hours that we could confirm, so phone ahead on 0166-97-2101 before you walk over in ski boots.
What does Hotel Bear Monte offer day bathers?
Bear Monte's hot spring page lists day bathing from 12:30 to 19:00, with last entry at 18:00. Adults pay ¥1,140, which includes the ¥150 bathing tax, and children pay ¥570. A face towel costs ¥110 and a bath towel ¥220. Hotel guests lose the main bath from 10:00 to 12:00 and from midnight to 5:00.
Bear Monte's source comes out of the ground at 41.8°C. You won't find a rotenburo. In its place the hotel opened an outdoor sauna called Shinkokyu on 29 February 2024, and its cold plunge closes in the hardest cold of midwinter. If you stay at Bear Monte, the board room locks.
Why does the water feel different here?
Asahidake's water is a calcium, magnesium and sodium sulphate and chloride spring. The mix is uncommon, and it runs clear and odourless at both inns. Nothing lingers on your skin or in your base layers after a soak, so you can go straight from the bath to the dinner table. Locals have long called Bear Monte's water a bath for healing cuts, and knuckles split by a day of wind on the plateau can use the help.
Can you bathe at Asahidake Onsen with tattoos?
Neither inn says. Bear Monte's hot spring page mentions no rule, and Onsen Oni lists none for Yukomanso. Ask at the front desk before you pay, using the line in our etiquette guide. Kurodake no Yu over in Sounkyo refuses visible tattoos, so it won't serve as your fallback.
Where else can you soak in the Daisetsuzan this winter?
Kurodake no Yu at the Kurodake Ropeway in Sounkyo charges ¥800 and has an upstairs rotenburo over the gorge.
The baths on the Tokachidake side are closed or restricted for the season. The Japan Meteorological Agency raised Tokachidake to volcanic alert level 3 on 12 September 2026, and Fukiage Roten-no-yu and Hakuginso have been closed since that day. Ryounkaku has asked guests who couldn't evacuate quickly to stay away for now. Check the JMA bulletin before you plan anything on the Tokachi range.
How do you get to Asahidake Onsen?
By car it takes about an hour from Asahikawa on Route 1160, which ends at the ropeway. Without one, the Ideyu-go bus runs from JR Asahikawa Station by way of Asahikawa Airport and Higashikawa in about 1 hr 40 min, around four times a day, and published one-way fares run from ¥1,430 to ¥1,800. Check the current timetable with Asahikawa Denki Kido. Higashikawa down the valley has the cafés and bakeries the hamlet lacks.
Is it worth sleeping at the end of the road?
Sleep there if you plan two or more days off the ropeway. You walk to the first car, and the drive down to Asahikawa in the dark drops out of the day. The hamlet has little beyond the inns, so dinner is whatever your hotel serves. Bear Monte's dinner pairs a plated main course with a buffet, and the bar pours Hokkaido wine and sake.
How we researched this
We read the ropeway operator's fares and calendar, Hotel Bear Monte's hot spring page, the Nifty Onsen listing for Yukomanso, the Onsen Oni database and our own fact sheets in October 2026. Prices are adult rates published at that time. Nobody from Ride Hokkaido bathed at Asahidake Onsen for this piece.
Quick answers
How much is a day bath at Asahidake Onsen?
A day bath at Asahidake Onsen costs ¥1,140 for an adult at Hotel Bear Monte and ¥1,200 at Yukomanso, as published in October 2026. Bear Monte's price includes the ¥150 bathing tax, and towels cost extra at both.
What time does Hotel Bear Monte open for day bathing?
Hotel Bear Monte at Asahidake Onsen sells day bathing from 12:30 to 19:00, with last entry at 18:00. The hotel stands three minutes on foot from the Asahidake Ropeway base station.
Does Asahidake Onsen have an outdoor bath?
Yes. Yukomanso at Asahidake Onsen has a rotenburo fed by its own springs. Hotel Bear Monte has no outdoor bath, though it added an outdoor sauna on 29 February 2024.
Can you bathe at Asahidake Onsen with tattoos?
Neither Hotel Bear Monte nor Yukomanso at Asahidake Onsen publishes a tattoo policy, and the Onsen Oni database lists no rule for either. Ask at the front desk before you pay for a day bath.
We write from operators’ and agencies’ own pages, open map data and published research, and we date every fact we check. How we research.