Lake Kussharo, also located in Akan National Park, is reached in a little more than 1 hour from Akan. Unlike Akan, this area was quite warmer, and almost no sight of snow could be seen.

As soon as we reached the shore of the lake, we could enjoy a magnificient view from our hotel:

But again, this area is mostly famous for its rotenburo, most of them being konyoku (mixed bath). Wakoto Onsen is a small peninsula where a large bath can be found. Unfortunately, the place is not really sheltered, and located close to a camping, which means that nobody actually used the facility when we visited it on two occasions.

More attractive was Kotan, a small bath located at a couple of meters from the lake. Officially, this is a segragated bath, and a large stone separates the women and the men's part. However, this stone is too small for the size of the bath, and you can freely go from one part to another. Indeed, I am enjoying the sunset in the women's part in the following picture...

Kawayu Onsen is the place where most people visiting lake Kussharo and lake Mashu stay. A classical onsen town, with a large number of hotels. We stopped at one of them which had a konyoku.

The town also has a small public bath, Ashi yu (feet hot water), where you can just relax for some minutes with your feet in a small pool. It was really pleasant, although quite hot (about 43 degrees). You can seen a picture of me just before I measured the pH of the water. The water was shocking: it had a value of 1.2-1.3, which is probably the most acidic bath I have seen in Japan. you also can notice the suspension which appears when the water is cooled down, giving it a milky apparence.

Located close to Kawayu Onsen, this mountain is the center of an intense geological activity. Sulfuric fumes can be seen - and approached closely.

But probably the most interesting place was Lake Mashu, 15 km from Kawayu Onsen. This lake is surrounded by steep walls that reach 300 meters high. The very small island, in the middle of the lake, is called by Ainu the Isle of the Gods. We were lucky, during our first visit, to have a perfect blue sky - and a marvellous view on the lake from its shore. Here are two panoramas of the place - simple pictures can not really render the atmosphere...

Interestingly, even on this remote spot, ketai can still be used...

Two days later, on our way to the airport, we stopped again to have a view from the other side of the lake. But at this time, the weather was quite different, as you can seen on the following picture! Just behind Seiko and I should the lake be seen... We couldn't even guess where it was exactly!

Finally, we also visited this very small onsen town. And soaked first in a beautiful ryokan (Daiichi Hotel), and then in a free public bath next to a small river. Both were mixed bath.

The ryokan had an impressive number of baths... Two inside ones, completely made of wood, two medium-sized outside baths at 20 cm of the river, three small wooden outside baths. Those ones were segregated, but there was also a large outside konyoku.
 

The free onsen was much smaller - but also much less crowded!