Onneto Taki-no-yu

Onneto taki-no-yu is a free, open air, and mixed hot spring.
As the name indicates, it is a water fall, but contrary to what one would believe, people do not get under the water fall, but get in a little pool at the top of the \water fall. The hot spring is pretty well known, so one should not expect to get it all for one self, as all other hot springs in Hokkaido in the summer. The water is not exactly hot, but if one gets close to the source, it is ok for staying for half an hour or more.

There is one tiny shelter where one can undress/change clothes and put one's clothes. This shelter is shared by men and woman.

Take route 241 from Obihiro city towards Akanko lake. Onneto taki-no-yu is located close by Onneto lake not so far from Akanko lake. There should be a sign showing off to the lake. Pass the lake and continue down the little road until you get to a little parking place. From here it is about 10 mins. walk to the waterfall.

I stopped at a parking lot to get a rest on my way to the eastern part of Hokkaido. There were already a lot of bikes there, so my Harley did not catch a lot of eyes. I had just left Tomuraushi onsen, which is at the end of a 10 km dirt road, and since it had been raining, my Harley was incredibly dirty. I decided to spend a little time on cleaning up it while I was taking a rest. This attracted some attention, and I got to talk with the person who I had parked next to. We were going in the same direction, so we decided to go together.

My new friend had already been to Hokkaido 5 times, so he knew the road and everything. We went directly to Onneto taki-no-yu, and I was very anxious to get in. He did not seem too anxious, and now I really think he would not have gotten in if it had not been for me. There were already a lot of people in the hot spring when we got in. All the girls were wearing swim suits, of course, and only a few of the guys were naked. I decided to go in naked. After all it was a hot spring and not a swimming pool. I immagined, that I would not attract any more attention by being naked, than by being a foreigner. If it had not been for my little onsen towel which kept floating up when everyone was taken pictures, I would have been right.

After the hot spring, we went to a camping site nearby and put up our tents. Nearby was this little main street giving an incredible atmosphere of an ancient Ainu town. At least that is the impression that they were trying to give everyone. The atmosphere was really great, but it did get spoiled a little by all the "Ainu" in the souvenir shops speaking with heavy Tokyo dialect.

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