Akanko Onsen

Akanko Onsen runs along the south shore of Lake Akan in Akan-Mashu National Park, and the Ainu used these springs long before the first inn opened in 1902. The west end of town belongs to the Akanko Ainu Kotan, where about 120 people live and the Ikor theatre stages dance in the evenings.

Fourteen sources feed the hotels, mostly simple and sulphur springs between 50 and 80°C. Some run clear and some come out tinged yellow-brown. The big lakefront hotels take day bathers, and Akan Yuku no Sato Tsuruga has a garden rotenburo set almost level with the lake. On winter mornings steam rises off the water.

Akan claims to have invented the te-yu hand bath, and two of them sit free on the street for warming your fingers. Tattoo rules vary hotel by hotel. New Akan Hotel's rooftop Sky Garden Spa is a mixed pool where everyone wears swimwear.