A Wild Onsen!

I am not sure what else to call our experience on Asahidake. With 8 high school students I travelled to Asahikawa whence, after a night at the youth hostel where the students had their first experience of hot-spring bathing both inside and out doors, we set off (suitably equipped with hostel obentou and bear bells) to follow the trail up and down the mountain.

 

It was during the descent we found the natural pools - no one had mentioned these and they were not marked on the map. After testing the temperature, the boys stripped down to their boxer shorts and enjoyed a relaxing soak: the girls had to make do with ashonoyu. There were several spots to repeat the process, some already occupied by other groups, others we had to ourselves. As everyone had the required tenugui redressing was no problem: much of the discussion on the rest of the downhill walk revolved around what time they could get into another bath back at the hostel! I shall be in the Tohoku region in August - does anyone know of any wild onsening there?