tohoku40.58° N, 140.90° E
Oirase and Towada
The Oirase Stream runs fourteen kilometres out of Lake Towada, a caldera lake in the mountains of Aomori, through a gorge of beech and maple, over moss-covered boulders and past a sequence of named waterfalls.
The Oirase Stream
- Region
- Tohoku
- Our journeys
- One stay here
- Where we stay
- Tsuta Onsen
Our tours stayA day on tourA Custom Tour of Japan
the place
A stream through the beech forest, and a lake in a crater at its head.
The road follows the water, so the gorge is taken stretch by stretch, the car waiting at each, from the falls at Choshi Otaki up to Nenokuchi, where the stream leaves the lake. Lake Towada itself is more than three hundred metres deep, its water a dark clear blue between forested headlands, on the border of Aomori and Akita.
We stay at Tsuta Onsen, a wooden inn in the beech forest whose main onsen is built directly over its own spring, with the still pond of Tsuta-numa a short walk away. The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan gives it two nights.
what we do here
Oirase and Towada, as we show it
The gorge
Fourteen kilometres of river, waterfall and moss, taken stretch by stretch.
Choshi Otaki
The broad waterfall where the stream drops below the lake.
Lake Towada
The caldera at the head of the gorge, deep blue between its headlands.
Tsuta Onsen
An onsen built over its own spring, the water rising through the boards beneath you.
where we stay
Tsuta Onsen
A wooden inn standing in the beech forest since the Meiji era, its main onsen built directly over its own spring.
On The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan
our journeys here
The journeys that stay in Oirase and Towada
nearby
Near Oirase and Towada
questions
Questions about Oirase and Towada
Which of your tours stay at Oirase?
The Autumn Leaves Tour of Northern Japan spends two nights at Tsuta Onsen, with the length of the Oirase gorge and Lake Towada.
How do you reach the Oirase gorge?
By road from Shin-Aomori, about an hour and a half by private car. On our tour the car carries you on from the Shinkansen.
Can Oirase be part of a private journey?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Japan can bring Oirase and Lake Towada into a journey created around your party alone. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans the days for you.
Oirase and Towada, created for you alone.
The Custom Tour of Japan is created around your party alone, on your dates, and Oirase and Towada can be any part of it. If you would rather travel independently, the Expert Japan Itinerary plans every day for you.