Mori no Uta Onsen & Spa in Sapporo
Last updated: August 26, 2026
An hour from downtown Sapporo, the city keeps a forest sanctuary: Mori no Uta — "song of the forest" — is a design-led resort at the gateway to Jozankei Onsen, and its day-use baths let you borrow the whole mood without staying the night. Jozankei's hot spring water fills sunlit indoor pools and an open-air bath set among the trees, where snow, fresh green or blazing maples do the decorating by season. Between soaks, the resort's fireplace lounge and hammock chairs make lingering the entire point — a spa day in the woods with the city an easy ride away.
Itinerary
- Stop at: Jozankei Tsuruga Resort Spa Mori no Uta
Frequently Asked Questions
Jozankei's famously gentle hot-spring water in two registers: bright indoor baths under generous windows, and an open-air bath wrapped in forest, where the season sets the scenery — steam against snowdrifts in winter, maples in October, deep green all summer. The design-hotel setting keeps everything calm and uncrowded compared with the big bathhouses.
At the entrance to Jozankei Onsen, Sapporo's own hot-spring valley in the city's mountainous south — roughly an hour from downtown by car or the Jozankei-bound buses from Sapporo Station. It shares the valley with the gorge walks and footbaths of Jozankei town.
This experience is the day-use plan: you enjoy the resort's onsen and lounges for the day and return to Sapporo by evening. The building is a full resort hotel, so an overnight stay is the natural upgrade if the hammock chairs win the argument.
Very little — onsen bathing is towels-and-nothing-else by custom, with washing stations before the pools, and the resort provides amenities befitting a spa hotel. Note the usual onsen etiquette applies, including restrictions on visible tattoos; covering stickers are the common workaround at Japanese baths.