Hakone
Hotel Shiki no Yakata Hakone-Ashinoko
ホテル四季の館箱根芦ノ湖
Katsushika Hokusai, “Kajikazawa in Kai Province (Kōshū Kajikazawa), from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)” — The Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0
The hotel stands on the slope above Lake Ashi at Motohakone, about three minutes from the water by car. All thirty rooms — twenty Japanese-style, ten Western — have their own open-air hot spring bath, and the tubs vary by room, some hinoki cypress, some glazed ceramic.
The water is a simple sulphur spring of the hydrogen-sulphide type carrying 121mg of metasilicic acid, and the hotel lists atopic dermatitis, psoriasis and chronic eczema among its indications. Shared bathing is a men's and a women's indoor and open-air bath looking down over the lake, plus a dry sauna, open 15:00-24:00 and again 5:00-10:00. The hotel states plainly that it has no reservable private bath.
Dinner is French rather than kaiseki: a course built around Sagami Bay fish, served in the restaurant Parterre, which keeps a cellar and a sommelier. There is no room service, and dinner and breakfast each run in two sittings chosen at check-in.
Guests must be of junior-high age or older, as children of elementary age and under are not accepted, and dedicated rooms take up to two small dogs of 6kg or less. Tattoos were refused outright until July 2024, when the hotel began a trial permitting bathing if the design is completely hidden under cover seals. A free shuttle leaves JR Odawara's west exit at 14:20 and 16:00 and the hotel at 9:30 and 11:10, reserved by phone the day before. Check-in is 15:00 and check-out 11:00.
Why we chose it
Every room has its own open-air sulphur bath, which matters more than usual here because the hotel says outright that it has no reservable private bath — the in-room tub is the private soak. It is also unusually clear about its rules: an age floor at junior high, a tattoo policy set out in full, and shuttle times published to the minute. Dinner is French, so come for the water and the lake rather than kaiseki.
What it has
- Room with private hot spring bath
- Dogs welcome
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Prices are indicative and change with dates and availability.
Sources
- Official site (Japanese)
- Official site - baths (Japanese)
- Official site - rooms (Japanese)
- Official site - dining (Japanese)
- Official site - access and shuttle (Japanese)
- Official site - FAQ (Japanese)
- Rakuten Travel - facility details (Japanese)
- Hakone Onsen Ryokan and Hotel Association listing (Japanese)