Yakeyama

The day after Honjo Festival myself and Paul decided to head north to hike a mountain range near Hachimantai (八幡平) in Noshiro. We planned on hiking for 3 days but due to bad weather and multiple bear warnings we cut it back to a short hike up Mt. Yake (焼山) and back.

Yakeyama translates roughly to burning mountain. And we quickly realised why, shortly after we arrived. On one side of the mountain is Tamagawa Onsen (玉川温泉), a very famous onsen because it has the highest acidic water in Japan (pH 1.1). And close to the onsen much volcanic activity can be observed like boiling steam and sulphuric gasses gushing from the rocks.


Many people bring mats and lay down on the ground, as it is believed that the area contains a significant amount of radioactive radium which is believed to cure many different ailments.


We continued up the mountain where at the top we found a crater lake full of white liquid! Gasses from under the liquid gave the impression that the water was actually boiling!



The summit, 1324m.


That evening we went to Tamagawa Onsen. They had many different baths with varying levels of acidity. I tried most of them, but the highly acidic ones were not very comfortable on sensitive areas of the body.

The next morning we went to the far side of the mountain to the more anally friendly Goshōgake Onsen (後生掛温泉).