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sanji
Thu Jan 26, 2006 11:11 am

Re: Coming Home....Need Some Advice
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Hi John Kun,

Both Gifu and the northern part of Tohoku offer great onsen! The problem is that those are, as you know, isolated locations, and it is usually not possible to reach such onsen by train.

If you can consider renting a car, you probably would have much better opportunities to visit nice onsen. If you stay in those prefectures, even a day trip by car would allow you to reach really wild onsen...

For example, close to the village of Shirakawago (with the old, traditionnal houses with sharp roofs found in Gifu-ken), there is an interesting onsen called http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~sukayu/img/daiyoku.jpg
source : http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~sukayu/img/daiyoku.jpg

In the Kuroishi Onsen area (north-west of the lake), there is a great ryokan in http://www.secret-japan.com/onsen/pic/Aomori%20-%20041231%20-%20101%20-%20Aoni-ico.jpg
source : http://onsen.secret-japan.com


A little to the south, close to Tazawako lake in Aomori-ken, there are also several famous onsen, like http://www.secret-japan.com/onsen/pic/tamagawa2-ico.jpg
Tamagawa onsen - source : http://onsen.secret-japan.com


If you do not want to drive, there are still possibilities in the Kanto area. For example, Kusatsu could be a great destination. This famous onsen town in Gunma-ken can be reached by shinkansen followed by a car trip. So it Manza, which at 1800 meters altitude is one of the highest in Japan.


Since you read Japanese, you might enjoy this web site called [url=http://www.alpha-net.ne.jp/users2/curoka/spa.htm]Hotsprings near Stations, and which offers lots of information on onsen that can be reached by train.

Or have a look at our onsen pages : http://www.secret-japan.com/onsen


Hope to read from you after you come back ;)

sanji