Access is via the Shimokita Kotsu bus to Ōhata from Shimokita Station on the Ōminato Line of East Japan Railway Company takes roughly 30 minutes. It takes another 25 minutes after transferring buses in Ōhata. Buses will take you to the Yagen Onsen (薬研温泉) which is located about 2kms upstream from the Kappa no Yu onsen.
Kappa no Yu sits like an emerald pool in the side of a river, and is protected from the sun by beautiful arched maples. Sitting inside the bath one can see a waterfall and hear the river rushing by. It is truly a peaceful and spectacular onsen.
The name of the onsen is derived from local legend. The story goes that the onsen attracts the naughty Kappa creature,who likes to steal and eat children. Thankfully these creatures can be easily deterred from their child stealing task as they love cucumber more than children. If you give them a stick of cucumber, they quickly drop the child and eat instead. Within japanese food, the kappamaki is cucumber wrapped in rice and nori. The Kappa shares its name with this dish. You can see a lovely bronze kappa statue within the onsen, with hand outstretched for cucumber.
Perhaps because of the lack of facilities (there are no toilets or showers, only a change room), the onsen is difficult to locate. The signs with maps in the local area are drawn with quite peculiar scale that seems to only make finding the onsen more difficult.
Look for the giant car park before the tunnel, where there is a mostly obscured wooden sign bearing the name of the onsen when you are travelling along the road toward the onsen from Aomori. The picture below is of the sign from the opposite (returning) direction.
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