Jozankei Daiichi Hotel Suizantei

Suizantei stands on a slope in Jozankei, the hot spring town about 26 km south of central Sapporo, inside Shikotsu-Toya National Park. It opened in 1957, and in 2002 rewrote the “hotel” in its name as 寶亭留 — the same sound, characters meaning a house where treasure stays. All 51 rooms, 45 to 160 sq m, have their own hot spring bath.

The owners hold three springs rising in the Toyohira riverbed and blend them: sodium chloride water (ナトリウム‐塩化物泉), about 69°C at source. Two communal bath halls (大浴場) swap between men and women: 飛泉乃湯, six tubs including a jacuzzi, cold plunge and open-air bath, plus a sauna; and 桂木乃湯, whose open-air tub faces a 300-year-old katsura tree. Hours are 13:00–03:00 and 05:00–10:00.

Two baths are reservable, for a fee, on a form given at check-in: 森乃湯 (Mori-no-yu), a detached bathhouse up a stone path, kept dim and without showers, on source water the inn says is neither heated nor diluted; and 妙泰乃湯, a seventh-floor open-air tub with no washing area. From 06:00 森乃湯 opens free, men and women separately. A private sauna, 翠山熱波, is bookable.

Dinner is 翠山御膳, the house tray meal, in one of three dining rooms; one menu is built daily from what is best, so there is no choice of course. Breakfast is Japanese. Check-in is 15:00, checkout 11:00; but guests may bathe next door at the Kyujitsu Building from 11:00, and at Yumoto Koganeyu ten minutes away until 23:00 after checkout. Elementary-school age and above only.