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49 places
A hot spring in every room
Your own bath of hot-spring water, indoors or open to the air.
15 places
Dinner in your room
Kaiseki brought course by course to the room.
22 places
Where the food is the reason
Auberges and inns built around their kitchens.
20 places
Ryokans with a private onsen near Tokyo
A hot spring in every room, within a few hours of the capital.
4 places
Ryokans with a private onsen in Kyoto and Kansai
A hot spring in every room, in Kyoto, Nara and the Kii peninsula.
54 places
Hot springs where tattoos are no trouble
Tattoos welcome in the shared baths, or a hot spring of your own.
38 places
Ryokans that welcome children
Children of any age, babies included.
22 places
Stayed or inspected
The places our team knows first-hand.
Ryokans
Japanese inns: tatami rooms, a kaiseki dinner, and in most of them a hot-spring bath.
Shuzenji, Izu
RyokanAsaba Ryokan
あさば
A Noh stage over the pond, one family's inn since 1484
Honcho, Nikko
RyokanFufu Nikko
ふふ 日光
On the site of the Tamozawa Imperial Villa's 1914 annexe
Subashiri, Mount Fuji
RyokanGora Kadan Fuji
強羅花壇 富士
Forty-two suites looking due west at Fuji's summit
Nanzenji, Kyoto
RyokanFufu Kyoto
ふふ 京都
Hinoki baths by the canal at Nanzen-ji, next to Murin-an
Amagi Yugashima Onsen, Izu
RyokanOchiairo
おちあいろう
Where Kawabata wrote, at the meeting of two Amagi rivers
Gora, Hakone
RyokanGora Kadan
強羅花壇
The Kan'in imperial summer villa, an inn since 1948
Kawaguchi, Kawaguchiko
RyokanFufu Kawaguchiko
ふふ 河口湖
Open-air baths laid with Fuji lava, above the lake
Lake Kinrin, Yufuin
RyokanKamenoi Bessou
亀の井別荘
Eleven cottages in a 1921 villa's woods on Lake Kinrin
Tominokoji-Rokkaku, Kyoto
RyokanKanamean Nishitomiya
要庵西富家
Eight rooms, each with its garden, in an 1873 sukiya house
Hotels and auberges
Japanese-run hotels, and the auberges where the restaurant is the reason to come.
Nijo, Kyoto
HotelHOTEL THE MITSUI KYOTO, a Luxury Collection Hotel & Spa
ホテル ザ ミツイ キョウト
Entered by a 1703 gate, opposite Nijo Castle
Lake Chuzenji, Nikko
HotelThe Ritz-Carlton, Nikko
ザ・リッツ・カールトン日光
Across Lake Chuzenji to Mount Nantai, with a sulphur spring
Noboriojicho, Nara
HotelShisui, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Nara
紫翠 ラグジュアリーコレクションホテル 奈良
A 1922 governor's residence in a garden once Kofuku-ji's
Saga-Tenryuji, Kyoto
HotelSuiran, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Kyoto
翠嵐 ラグジュアリーコレクションホテル 京都
Baron Kawasaki's 1899 villa on the Hozu River by Tenryu-ji
Toranomon, Tokyo
HotelThe Okura Tokyo
オークラ東京
Yoshiro Taniguchi's 1962 lobby, reproduced by his son
Kawaramachi Oike, Kyoto
HotelHotel Okura Kyoto
ホテルオークラ京都
A hotel since 1890 on the Choshu domain's old residence
Okazaki, Kyoto
HotelHotel Okura Kyoto Okazaki Bettei
ホテルオークラ京都 岡崎別邸
In a Hongan-ji temple precinct, fitted by Kyoto craft heirs
Kyu-Karuizawa
HotelMampei Hotel
万平ホテル
Kume Gonkuro's 1936 Alps Wing, an inn since 1764
Arashiyama, Kyoto
HotelMuni Kyoto
MUNI KYOTO
Rooms facing the Togetsukyo bridge, French in kaiseki form
Trains and cruises
The cruise trains and Guntû on the Inland Sea: among the hardest bookings in Japan, which our team applies for.
Hakata
Cruise trainSeven Stars in Kyushu
ななつ星in九州
One to four nights · 10 suites
From ¥700,000 per person
Yokohama
Cruise trainThe Royal Express
One to three nights · About 100 seats in eight cars
From ¥240,000 per person
Ueno (Tokyo)
Cruise trainTrain Suite Shiki-shima
One to three nights · 17 suites
From ¥470,000 per person
Kyoto to Shimonoseki
Cruise trainTwilight Express Mizukaze
One to two nights · 16 rooms
From ¥385,000 per person
Bella Vista Marina
CruiseGuntû
ガンツウ
Two to four nights · 17 suites
From ¥625,000 per person
Hakata
CruiseMitsui Ocean Cruises
三井オーシャンクルーズ
A larger all-suite ship: 229 suites, up to 458 guests
From ¥278,000 per person
Opening soon in Japan
New luxury hotels and ryokans announced to open over the next two years. Tell us which interests you and we register your interest before the first nights go on sale.
Shangri-La GroupKyoto
Opens Late 2026Songtei Kyoto, Shangri-La Signatures
A 77-key hotel facing the north gate and gardens of Nijo Castle, on the former residence of the Edo-period Kyoto Shoshidai; it is the second hotel in Shangri-La's Signatures collection. It has a private spa with indoor and outdoor hot baths, an indoor pool, a Chinese restaurant and a kappo-sushi counter, and opens in stages from late 2026.
HiltonSakae, Nagoya
Opened July 2026Conrad Nagoya
Hilton's first Conrad in Nagoya, on floors 10, 11 and 31 to 40 of The Landmark Nagoya Sakae tower, with a direct link to Sakae subway station. It opened on 31 July 2026 and is the third Conrad in Japan, after Tokyo and Osaka.
Mitsui Fudosan / HOTEL THE MITSUI HAKONEKowakudani, Hakone
Opens December 2026HOTEL THE MITSUI HAKONE
The second HOTEL THE MITSUI, after Kyoto, on 13.5 hectares of former Mitsui family villa land at Kowakudani, two minutes' walk from the Hakone Tozan railway station. Every one of the 126 rooms has a bath fed from the hotel's own hot spring and a balcony or terrace facing Mount Sengen, and the grounds include a sukiya-style villa, Shiki-an, and a swimsuit thermal spring.
Japan
How we work
1
Tell us about the trip
Your dates, who is travelling and what matters to you: the bath, the food, the quiet, the city.
2
We advise, and book in Japan
The places and rooms we would choose, booked by our team on the ground in Japanese, with your preferences and requests settled with each inn before you arrive.
3
We stay with you
One point of contact with every inn and hotel, before you leave and while you travel, for anything that changes or anything you need.
The best inns in Japan are not made for booking from abroad. Many take reservations only in Japanese, some only by telephone. No two rooms are alike, dinner is served at an hour the inn sets, and the inn expects to know before you arrive what you cannot eat and whether anyone in your party has tattoos.
We have worked in this industry for years. We have stayed at 15 of the places here and inspected 7 more in person, and researched every other one from its own pages in Japanese. We know which room looks onto the garden, which bath is worth the journey, and which inn suits a first stay in Japan and which is better saved for a second.
Our team on the ground in Japan then makes the booking with the inn or hotel, settles everything it will ask, and tells you which room to request and when to arrive.
Sample trips
Starting points, not packages. Every trip we plan is built around your dates, your pace and who is travelling; these show the kind of route we put together.
10 nights · Spring
A first trip: Tokyo, Hakone and Kyoto, and a night train by the sea
The classic first journey through Japan, from the capital to a hot-spring ryokan in the hills and on to the old capital.
9 nights · Autumn leaves
Kyoto in depth, by neighbourhood, and two nights in Nara
Kyoto taken one district at a time: a ryokan in the old centre near Higashiyama, a hotel on the river at Arashiyama, then a garden hotel opposite Nijo Castle.
7 nights · Winter
Hokkaido in winter: Niseko powder, then the lakes of Shikotsu and Akan
A trip from the ski slopes of Niseko to a lake in the caldera south of Sapporo, then a short flight east to Lake Akan.
9 nights · Spring
The Inland Sea in spring: art islands, Guntû and Miyajima
A trip across the Seto Inland Sea, from the art museums of Naoshima to an island on the Shimanami Kaido and three nights at sea on Guntû.
9 nights · Winter
Mount Fuji and Izu: a train down the coast, the hot springs of the peninsula and two views of the mountain
From Tokyo down the Izu coast by the Saphir Odoriko, over the Amagi Pass to two inns in the hot-spring valley of central Izu, then north to the foot of Mount Fuji.
6 nights · Spring or autumn
Okinawa's southern islands: Miyakojima and Taketomi
Three nights in a villa with its own pool on the north coast of Miyakojima, then a short flight to Ishigaki and the ferry to Taketomi for three nights in a village of red-tiled houses.
Japanese hotel brands we recommend
Q&A
Through someone who speaks Japanese: by the inn's Japanese booking page, by telephone, or through a Japanese travel agent. Our team in Japan books them, by phone where needed, passes on your preferences and requests, arranges anything special with the inn, and stays in touch with it for you before and during your stay.
Of those here, Asaba Ryokan, Fufu Nikko, Gora Kadan Fuji, Fufu Kyoto, Ochiairo, The Okura Tokyo, Amanemu, Enowa Yufuin, Fufu Kawaguchiko, Kamenoi Bessou, Onyado Chikurintei and The Hiramatsu Karuizawa Miyota, and 39 more. Each page says what kind of bath, and whether it is hot-spring water.
It depends on the inn, and many say nothing in public. 26 of the properties here publish a policy, given on each page; a private bath in the room avoids the question, and we ask the others for you.
Usually: most ryokans quote a rate for two with dinner and breakfast, and dinner is a kaiseki of many courses at a set time, in the room or a private dining room. Each page says how the inn serves it.