Asahidake Onsen

Asahidake Onsen sits at about 1,100 metres where the road runs out under Hokkaido's highest mountain. The ropeway climbs to 1,600 metres in roughly ten minutes, and from the top station the snowfields of Asahidake run up toward the steaming vents of Jigokudani. Riders come for the powder off that ropeway, and the inns at the bottom are where the day finishes.

The springs here are an uncommon sulphate and chloride water, clear and odourless. At Yukomanso the inn owns five sources between 33 and 42°C and uses them without heating, so you pick a tub by temperature and can sit in the cooler ones for ages. Its two big bathrooms swap between men and women daily, and there's a rotenburo.

Hotel Bear Monte is three minutes on foot from the ropeway base and sells day entry for ¥1,140 from half past twelve. It has no rotenburo, though it added an outdoor sauna in 2024. Yukomanso charges ¥1,200 for day bathing.