Appi Onsen

Appi Onsen is a hot spring associated with the Appi Kogen ski and mountain resort in Hachimantai City, Iwate Prefecture, where the original wild thermal spring on the hiking route to the Hachimantai highland from the Appi side remains accessible as a natural outdoor bath, while the developed Appi Kogen resort area has also established thermal bathing facilities as the resort expanded from a mountain trail destination to one of the finest ski resorts in the Tohoku region. Hachimantai, the broad volcanic highland straddling the border of Akita and Iwate Prefectures within the Towada-Hachimantai National Park, is renowned for its spectacular winter snowscapes, autumn foliage, and the eerie beauty of the Aspite Line mountain road where snow walls tower over the highway in spring. The hot spring of Appi, whether accessed in its natural trail-side form or through the developed resort facilities, provides warming thermal bathing in one of Tohoku's finest mountain environments, where volcanic activity beneath the Hachimantai highland generates the geothermal resources that sustain both the famous snow monkey hot spring pools of nearby Nyuto Onsen and the various bathing facilities of the Hachimantai resort zone.