Kita Onsen Ryokan Spa

I was taken care of. I wouldn't go there again.

Overall very good, deep mountain secret soup. Scenes from the Roman Baths

This famous hot spring was also the setting for the movie Thermae Romae. To be honest, I wanted to stay overnight, but due to scheduling conflicts, I ended up using it as a day trip. But a day trip is fine. I still got to enjoy the hot springs I've always wanted to visit. The fact that you can't drive directly to the inn makes it feel like a hidden gem, which is great. You have to walk there, which is about 400 meters. It's not that far away compared to places like Karinyu in Oku-Nikko. When I saw Kita Onsen in the distance, it was already dilapidated and I thought it was an abandoned building (sorry). You have to wear a swimsuit to enter the hot spring pool, which they are proud of, so you need to prepare in advance. There is a Tengu mask on display in the bathroom inside the building. It is huge. And the water quality in the bath was amazing. This is what a hot spring should be like. The water temperature is not tiring, so it's easy to soak in it for a long time. I would like to stay overnight next time. (My family didn't want to though.)

It's unique and tasteful, but it lacks most of the services you'd find in a typical hotel. Most consumables and room fixtures must be brought in or purchased. More like a boarding house than a ryokan. There are no shampoo, conditioner, body soap in the bathroom, tissues in the room, bath towels, hand towels, or yukata. There is no washroom in the bathroom. There is a limit to the amount of water that can be flushed in the toilet. For the time being, it's a western-style toilet, but it's not very clean. The hot spring seems to be free-flowing, but there is something floating in it that I don't know if it's yunohana or algae. It doesn't feel clean. The hot spring was available 24 hours. At night, the inn's cat patrols the hotel. He is friendly. It's a unique and interesting ryokan, but I don't think there's a sense of cleanliness or service. You can experience Japan in the early Showa era or even earlier. If you want to sleep in a clean room with standard service, staying somewhere else and using it for a day trip might be the right answer.