Hachimantai

The only cafe/restaurant in the Hachimantai Onsen area, serving up ramen, rice bowls and a few cafe dishes like waffles and homemade pudding. Food quality is a cut above the usual.

A traditional Japanese inn (ryokan) nestled in the Matsukawa Gorge, renowned for its milky-white, free-flowing sulfur hot spring baths. Both indoor and open-air baths (rotemburo). The inn serves meals featuring local Hachimantai ingredients, and a communal kitchen is available for guests who wish to cook for themselves (it's recommended to inquire in advance).

One of the highest altitude hot spring inns in the Tohoku region, near the summit of Mt. Hachimantai, this very, very rustic inn has no less than six separate outdoor baths (rotenburo) connected with a spiderweb of walkways. The water is milky white and sulfuric, and you can scoop up mud straight from the pools to treat your skin. Accommodations are in basic Japanese-style rooms with buffet dinners. Due to the exceedingly remote location, the inn is closed during the long winter period (end-October and end-April), generates its own power, and has spotty to no mobile phone reception.

This sprawling, aging mountain hotel is nothing special, but the hot springs are open to daytrippers (¥700) and feature a fabulous outdoor rotenburo surrounded by piles of snow in winter and views towards Mt Iwate on a clear day.