Hokkaido

Hidden Onsen in Hokkaido: Locals Fact-Check a "Secret Top 10" — and Name 40 More

Show Hokkaido locals a "top-10 secret onsen" countdown and they out-obscure it: across 185 comments, locals named more than 40 hot springs of their own — while the most-liked replies (22–25 likes) fact-check the list itself, insisting picks like Karurusu and Shiobetsu Tsurutsuru have been famous locally for 40 years. The genuinely obscure winner survives scrutiny: Shukubai, a wood-fired bathhouse near New Chitose Airport that first-timers say feels "like borrowing a stranger's bath." Locals also flag two celebrated hidden springs as closed with no reopening in sight — and a couple of them quietly name where they soak instead of inbound-packed Noboribetsu.