Ryotei Hanayura

Hanayura stands near the middle of the Noboribetsu Onsen village, one of six inns in the Toho Resort group. Twenty-seven of its 37 rooms have their own open-air bath: 23 twelve-mat Japanese rooms of 54 sq m, three Japanese-Western rooms of 74-96 sq m, and one 82 sq m suite. The ten standard 48 sq m rooms do not. The inn describes these tubs as Japanese cypress (hinoki) or ceramic, fed with sulphur water straight from the source.

The second-floor bathhouse is divided by sex, pairing a rustic rock bath with an open-air bath built largely of hinoki. Three spring types are named: sulphur spring, simple sulphur spring, and one the house calls 子宝泉, a “fertility spring”. The formal analysis runs from simple sulphur spring through hydrogen-sulphide-type acidic iron to acidic iron(II) sodium-chloride spring. The water is free-flowing, partly diluted and reheated, and cloudy. Bathing runs 14:00 to 09:30 the next morning. There is no reservable private bath.

Dinner is a seasonal kaiseki (会席) from the house’s head chef, served in one of eighteen basement private dining rooms or the ground-floor restaurant from 18:00, last seating 19:00. Breakfast, 07:30 to 09:30, is a Japanese set meal with a half-buffet.

Check-in is 14:00 (last arrival 18:00), check-out 10:00; bookings start at two adults. Children are taken, under-threes free without meals or bedding. A paid coach runs from Sapporo’s TV Tower in about 100 minutes, 1,000 yen each way, booked seven days ahead and cancelled below ten passengers. Pets are not accepted.