[Access] About 30 minutes by car from Sudama IC
[Webpage] Masutomi-no-yu (Japanese)
After climbing Mt. Mizugaki, a strange looking mountain with a forest of rocky peaks, I headed to Masutomi-no-yu in Masutomi Onsen. Around here, Foro-kaku is probably the most famous with many therapeutic bathers seeking the benefits of radium hot spring. But unfortunately it is only for overnight guests. Since it was a day-trip onsen after mountain climbing, I went to Masutomi-no-yu, a day trip onsen facility.
At Masutomi-no-yu, there are bathtubs with temperatures of 25 degrees, 30 degrees, 35 degrees, and 37 degrees respectively. And they recommends you to take the one which suites best according to your physical condition. Indeed, it’s quite popular and there’re many people, hence I could only take the one where there’s space :). In the end, I could relax in the 35 degrees Celsius hot spring (which was really good!).
Speaking of the radium hot spring, I was impressed by the one at Ryokan Ohashi in Misasa Onsen because I felt so tired and sleepy after the taking bath. So I was worried if I would be sleepy while I still had to drive home afterwards. But fortunately I didn’t feel that sleepy.
The main purpose of today’s trip was climbing Mt. Mizugaki, which is a very unique mountain with a forest of rocky peaks like this. At a first glance, I wondered how we can get there. Along the trail, there were large rocks and hazardous spots involving the use of chains, so it is a mountain for intermediate climbers. However, I was surprised to see children in the upper grades of elementary school managed to climb.
After a short climb from the trailhead, I arrived at Fujimi-daira hut. There is a camp site in front of the hut, and many people use it as a starting point to climb the two peaks of Mt. Mizugaki and Mt. Kinpu. They are both counted in 100 famous mountains in Japan. The Fujimi-daira spring water here was very cold and tasted very good.
The summit is rocky area with an unobstructed view. I could see Mt. Kinpu just in front, and also catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji, although there were some clouds today. From here, I could also see people doing rock climbing on the large rocks. It was a rather hard climb, but on the way back, I could go to Masutomi Onsen for the first time in a long time, and enjoyed the radium hot spring.