Aomori Sukayu Onsen Ryokan

About

Sukayu is one of Japan's most iconic historic ryokans — a mountain hot spring inn operating continuously since 1684, its most famous feature the Hibayu, a massive cypress wood communal bath (sennin buro — thousand-person bath) holding 1,000 bathers at once in a cathedral-scale wooden hall. The bath is mixed-gender (konyoku) in the traditional manner, the spring a potent sulfurous acid water with striking skin-healing properties. Sukayu sits at 900 meters in the Hakkoda Mountains above Aomori city, surrounded by beech forest that turns gold in autumn and accumulates some of Japan's heaviest snowfall in winter (7-8 meters). The inn has deliberately maintained its historic character — shared meals in communal dining halls, simple wooden architecture, no modern amenities in the historic building.

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