Japan Quietly

Hakone

Hakone Hibarino

箱根ひばり乃

Katsushika Hokusai, Kajikazawa in Kai Province. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0

Hakone Hibarino, photo from its Rakuten Travel listing

Hakone Hibarino opened in October 2025 in the woods at Sengokuhara, on the quieter western side of Hakone. There are eleven rooms in five categories, all twin-bedded, non-smoking and sold for one or two guests. Every room has its own hot-spring bath looking onto a private garden; the inn draws on the Owakudani source and gives the water as an acidic calcium sulphate-chloride spring, 60.6°C where it rises, which it calls a bihada-no-yu, a spring for the skin. Its own materials describe the room baths as open-air or semi-open-air (han-rotenburo) and are not consistent about which category is which.

Both meals are served in the restaurant rather than in the room, at times you fix with the front desk on arrival. The washoku kaiseki is overseen by head chef Kota Chiyomori, who cooked at a Ginza ryotei; dinner runs from sakizuke through wanmono, mukouzuke, nimono and yakimono, and closes with a dessert from the in-house pastry chef, who also makes the welcome sweet served on arrival. The kitchen states it cannot do vegan, gluten-free or fish-and-dashi-free cooking, and asks guests with severe allergies not to book a meal plan.

Guests below junior-high-school age are not accepted. Listed shared spaces are the restaurant, a cafe lounge, a bar open 18:00–22:30, and a Japanese garden. Check-in from 15:00, check-out 11:00. It is about six minutes on foot from the Senkyoro-mae bus stop, 45 minutes by Hakone Tozan bus from Odawara; parking is free.


Why we chose it

Eleven rooms, each with its own bath on the Owakudani source, and shared space that the inn’s own listings cover with a restaurant, a cafe lounge, a bar and a garden: this is an onsen stay built entirely around the room. We also like how plainly it states what it will not do — no guests below junior-high age, no vegan, gluten-free or dashi-free cooking — which is what you want to know before booking rather than after.

We may earn a commission when you book through links on this page.

Prices are indicative and change with dates and availability.


Sources

Everything on this page was checked against these Japanese-language pages. Links open in a new tab.

  1. Official site (Japanese)
  2. Official site - rooms (Japanese)
  3. Official site - access (Japanese)
  4. Official site - facilities (Japanese)
  5. Rakuten Travel listing - hot spring page (Japanese)
  6. Rakuten Travel listing - facilities page (Japanese)
  7. Rakuten Travel listing - rooms page (Japanese)
  8. Rakuten Travel listing - property details (Japanese)
  9. Rakuten Travel listing - plan conditions (Japanese)
  10. Operator press release, Haru Co. (Japanese)
  11. Ikyu Restaurant listing (Japanese)

Header artwork: Katsushika Hokusai, Kajikazawa in Kai Province. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0


More in Hakone