Jinpyokaku Honten — Hotel in Yamanouchi

素敵な宿です。混浴は俗なことを考えてしまいそうになりますが到ってマジメに入れます。 This inn has 120 years of history, and Yasunari Kawabata (won the Nobel Prize for Literature) and Soseki Natsume (was on the 1000 JPY bill before) also stayed at this inn to write. The highlight of this inn is the spa, of course! This inn uses 100% fresh spring water and does not recycle it. They have separate men's and women's indoor spas, and an open-air women's bath, and surprisingly, an open-air mixed-gender bath. It was the first time for me as well to soak in the mixed-gender bath. If you are brave, try it once in your life time?? In the mixed-gender bath, a woman can wear a simple wear to hide your breasts and hip, but a man cannot wear anything. There are only 6 rooms in this inn, so there are not many chances to meet people in the spa... but I was embarrassed a little. (An old lady was soaking in the mixed-gender bath totally naked, and said that nobody was looking and no worry! She was awesome :) ) The dinner and breakfast...

I would give our experience 6 out of 5 if I could. Difficult to express how much we loved the full experience of our stay. Firstly, if you are planning to see the snow monkeys this place is the only one in the area to consider - a short stroll to the park entry and then when you have seen enough of the monkeys you can quickly get back to this heavenly, quiet, getaway. The public onsen is beautiful. We also had a private onsen in our room that gave us options. The rooms are traditionally appointed with a lot of additional comforts; immaculate. Breakfast and dinner are provided - we stayed three days and could not get enough of the amazing and varied food. Soooo delicious! The service was magnificent - Ayaka and her team provided over the top service. We are hard pressed to recall such a relaxing and enjoyable experience....

We booked for 3 nights & it’s been absolutely AMAZING!!! It really was a home away from home. We were taken care almost single-handedly by Ayaka-san. She was so warm , friendly, efficient , great sense of humour. She took fantastic care of us . We met the owner upon arrival. A really lovely lady. She cooked all the meals and every dish, dip, sauce was Super delicious . Every dish was an amazing piece of art with the colours & details in arrangement. |Rooms were comfortable, cozy, clean. |Onsen was superb. Ladies were provided with a ‘dressing gown’ to enter the onsen as the outdoor public one had a mixed area. All bath amenities were provided. |Location is very close to the entrance to the snow monkey park. Just a short walk away. |Really love love love our holiday here. |Thank you Ayaka-san and the rest of the...