FUFU Hakone

A mountain resort in Gora, above the Hakone valley. All 39 rooms are suites, 50 to 120 sq m, sleeping two or four, and every one has a stone-built hot spring bath with a window that opens onto the ridgeline.

Two springs are in play. The room baths run on clear Gora water, a sodium chloride spring (alkaline, hypotonic, hot). The communal bath, on the fifth floor of the Keyaki-no-Mi wing, is fed from Owakudani: an acidic sodium-calcium chloride-sulphate spring the hotel calls milky white. It is open 06:00 to 11:00 and 15:00 to midnight, towels are kept there, and day visitors are not taken.

Dinner and breakfast are both served in Yamanoe, the second-floor restaurant, never in the rooms. The Japanese menu is prix fixe and partly chosen at the table; the August list ran a soup course, sashimi, and three small plates picked from a dozen or more. The alternative is Ishizue, the teppanyaki counter inside the same restaurant, seating at 18:00 and 20:30. There is no lunch; room service runs 18:00 to 21:00.

Check-in is 15:00, check-out 11:00. Gora station is about five minutes away by car and the hotel will collect you if you arrange it when booking; parking is free. Infants may stay, though children not yet out of nappies cannot use the communal bath and the teppanyaki counter is closed to under-tens. The spa is closed to under-16s. Pets cannot stay.