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GORA KADAN HAKONE

With its collection of hot-spring baths, spa treatments, and timeless ryokan style, this former Imperial villa in the mountains of Hakone offers one of the most luxurious weekend escapes from Tokyo.

Located on the grounds of the former summer villa of a member of the Imperial Family—in the village of Gora, midway through the classic sightseeing route around the Hakone area—the Gora Kadan initially opened as a ryokan in 1952, undergoing a major modernizing renovation in 1989 that has given the ryokan its current combination of traditional and contemporary styles.

The appreciation of nature is an important part of the experience at many of the best ryokan—as well as in traditional Japanese culture in general—and at the Gora Kadan opportunities to connect with nature abound. The setting, in the northern part of Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, means guests are treated to lush mountain views, while in spots like the moon-viewing deck they can watch bamboo sway and listen to the sound of a small stream, while taking in star-studded skies—weather permitting of course.

The guest rooms build on this connection with nature. Rooms in the Annex Suites feature private open-air baths that overlook the Gora Kadan’s historic landscaped garden; other suite rooms boast open-air rock, stone, or wooden baths that look out into nature. Even the “standard” rooms have their own aromatic indoor wooden baths that draw on natural hot-spring wells, as well as their own small private gardens. And regardless of the class of room, each features a smart mix of traditional design elements such as tatami matting, sliding paper screen doors and lightly toned woods that give both a freshness and a feeling of spaciousness.

A cobbled pathway leads to the main entrance.

One of the outdoor communal baths. Gora Kadan’s water, which feeds the communal and in-room baths, is a mineral-rich source from deep under Hakone. One of its attributes is to leave one’s skin feeling soft and smooth.

A small garden feature (for purification purposes) that wouldn’t look out of place at the entrance to the inner grounds of a shrine.

A room with a view. Many of the non-standard rooms come with facilities such as outdoor baths, wood decking with panoramic or semi-panoramic views, and a sense of being within nature.

One of the outdoor guest room baths. With the soothing heat of the water, soaking up to your chin in one of these feels just as good as a full-body massage.

Since 1981, Gora Kadan has been a member of the Relais & Chateaux association of independently owned luxury hotels and restaurants, and in 2002 it was awarded the organization’s prestigious Welcome Trophy in recognition of high customer satisfaction and high standards of service. It’s not hard to see why. As well as in-room baths, there are two large communal baths that draw on piping hot mineral-rich spring water, soothing and relaxing in the midst of nature. The nightly kaiseki is an artistic multi-course treat served in-room by kimono-clad staff and employing seafood sourced fresh from the local waters of Suruga Gulf and Sagami Bay as well as other fine produce brought in from around Japan. Beyond the normal facilities one finds at a ryokan, Gora Kadan also incorporates a covered swimming pool, a jacuzzi, and a gym, not to mention a spa that offers a range of aesthetic treatments such as full-body massages, facials and aromatherapy.

The location is terrific, too. Guests can easily access tourist attractions such as the Hakone Open Air Museum (home to a large Picasso collection as well as many outdoor art installations), the steaming volcanic landscape of the Owakudani valley, and Lake Ashi with its postcard-perfect view of Mount Fuji. See page 33 for further information on Hakone's attractions.

Gora kadan 強羅花壇

Address: 1300 Gora, Hakone, Ashigarashimo, kanagawa 250-0408

Telephone: 0460-82-3331

Website: www.gorakadan.com

Email: info@gorakadan.com

number of rooms: 38

Room rate: ¥¥¥¥

In-room baths come in a variety of styles, like this aromatic cedar tub.

Design-wise, the spa looks extremely traditional, but the massages and other treatments available there have an eclectic feel, with shiatsu, acupuncture, detox, stone therapy, and more on the menu.

After a traditional ryokan breakfast, you very often don’t need lunch. If you aren’t used to it, rice, fish, pickles, soup (and more) can be quite a challenging start to the day. But, it invites you to take your time, and a slow breakfast sets one up for a relaxing day ahead.

Relaxation at the Gora Kadan goes beyond a soak in the bath and a massage. You could lounge by the pool all day if you wanted, or do something very rare at a ryokan—use it to get some exercise.

KAI HAKONE HAKONE

The KAI’s distinctive blend of local customs and refined tradition with sleek contemporary touches really comes to the fore at the KAI Hakone’s Yosegi-no-Ma room, which is designed using local crafts as a key motif.

Situated on the banks of a mountain river, a short taxi ride from Hakone-Yumoto Station in the heart of the Hakone area, KAI Hakone is a traditional ryokan tweaked to satisfy modern-day guests.

Step inside and you will be met by staff dressed in black rather than in kimono. In place of green tea comes a welcome glass of sparkling wine served in a cavernous lobby, with natural wood flooring and furnishings and floor-to-ceiling windows that give panoramic views of greenery.

From the lobby, a corridor of bamboo leads to the guest rooms, which are spread over four floors and all overlook the river. Floors one to three have twenty-three Japanese-style rooms that feature low sofas and beds and offer an open space that combines a tatami-matted sitting area and wood-floored bedroom, plus wide windows for taking in the sights and sounds of nature outside. On the fourth floor are eight Western-style rooms, with carpeting and contemporary, unfussy interiors.

Balancing out the hearty flavor of the Meiji nabe (above), the meals also include the finesse of intricate dishes like these. Striking to look at yet sublime on the palette.

However, if you want a room that says Hakone like no other, book the KAI’s Yosegi-no-Ma, which has been decorated using a distinctive local craft called yosegi marquetry, a type of woodworking that uses different colors and tones of wood to give a mosaic-like appearance. In Hakone’s souvenir stores, you see everything from yosegi boxes and trays to cups and cupboards, and the Yosegi-no-Ma room has gone all out to incorporate these and yosegi-patterned furnishings in its design to very striking effect. Taking the theme a step further, every night in the lobby guests can make their own yosegi coasters; a fun activity and resulting in a souvenir that will be a real conversation-starter.

Like the Yosegi-no-Ma room, dinner is an elaborate affair. The ten-course kaiseki might start with an appetizer like salmon roe with sea urchin, before the hassun plate of delicacies, which, depending on the season, could include morsels such as steamed chicken with butterbur sprout miso, sea urchin mixed with agar, or thinly sliced potato dressed in flying fish roe. A standout dish here is the chef ’s special Meiji gyu no nabe hot pot, which features succulent chunks of steak cooked in a miso-based sauce.

One of the KAI Hakone’s signatures—a nabe (which roughly translates as a hot pot) of high-grade beef cooked in a miso-based sauce.

Hakone is renowned in Japan for its abundance of natural hot springs—there are twenty in the area, and bathing is a key part of any ryokan stay here. Drawing on water from the Hakone Yumoto hot spring, the KAI’s two semi open-air communal baths (one for men, one for women) feature large “infinity” bathtubs with vast open windows that frame the lush riverside scenery.

Hakone is also renowned as one of the most popular weekend retreats from Tokyo, in part because of its ryokan and baths, but also because it’s a fun area to explore. Using Hakone-Yumoto Station as a starting point, and going through a succession of different forms of transportation (from switchback railway to cable car and ropeway), guests at the KAI can easily head up into the mountains to see sights like the Hakone Open Air Museum, the historic Fujiya Hotel (see page 32), the mountain village of Gora, the steaming volcanic valley of Owakudani, and then drop down to the picturesque Lake Ashi—a route that also offers up various glimpses of Mount Fuji.

Hoshino Resorts kAi Hakone 界 箱根

Address: 230 Yumoto-chaya, Hakonemachi, Ashigarashimo, kanagawa 250-0312

Telephone: 050-3786-1144

Website: www.hoshinoresorts.com/en/resortsandhotels/kai/hakone

Email: hakone@kai-ryokan.jp

number of rooms: 32

Room rate: ¥¥

The communal baths are semi open-air and ion-rich, with a gentle coolness coming from the woods and the river that runs alongside the KAI. The way the opening in the building frames nature is a classic concept, albeit on a grand scale here.

if you are in the Yosegi-no-Ma room, which is designed on yosegi marquetry themes (a Hakone craft), while enjoying the striking woodwork.

There’s always something special about a little sake at a ryokan. You could take it with natural views on one of the terraces.

KIKKASO INN HAKONE

With just three rooms, a night at the Kikkaso is both intimate and tranquil. It’s a rare opportunity to have a former Imperial villa almost all to oneself, picturesque garden included.

History. The Fujiya Hotel in Hakone, one of Japan’s classic Western-style hotels, is steeped in it. Since opening in 1878, it has functioned as a luxury retreat for royalty and the stars, from Japan’s own Imperial Family to the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Helen Keller, and John Lennon. Explore the buildings and grounds and the past immerses you. Old photographs of famous guests adorn many of the hallway walls, there are art deco interiors, aging woods, and stairs that creak as you climb them. But that's not all. The Fujiya contains one of Hakone’s best kept secrets, the Kikkaso Inn.

Built in 1895 as a summer villa for the Emperor and Empress Meiji, and used by various members of the Imperial Family into the 1940s (when the Fujiya took control of it), the Kikkaso oozes old charm. Visit the tatami-mat dining area, where you can take a multi-dish kaiseki dinner if you don’t opt for the highly rated French cuisine at the Fujiya, and you’ll be eating in what was once the Emperor’s bedroom. Look at the pillars of Japanese cypress here and you will still see some of the iron rings that would have held up the Imperial mosquito nets, as well as iron light fittings bearing the Imperial chrysanthemum crest.

It’s the staff that ultimately make a good ryokan stay. The concept of omotenashi—roughly meaning hospitality but with a deeper nuance of understanding and anticipating a guest’s needs—is sometimes over-hyped nowadays and when done badly lacks flexibility, but at the best ryokan, it’s the key to the experience. Generations of service means places like the Kikkaso get omotenashi just right every time.

The Imperial adventure continues outside, where Kikkaso guests have exclusive access to the Imperial Family’s once-private stroll garden. Like the Kikkaso, which is the smallest of the former Imperial villas in Japan, the garden is an intimate affair, with a mossy pathway leading up to a small “hill” that has a view over the villa, and where a carp-filled pond is accented by a vivid vermilion bridge. Like the Meiji and Showa emperors before them, it’s very likely guests will enjoy their stroll in complete peace and quiet—there are, after all, only three guest rooms at the Kikkaso, all following the classic ryokan formula of tatami flooring, paper screen doors and, at night, futon arranged on the floor for sleeping.

If the historic charm of the Kikkaso and the glamorous atmosphere of the Fujiya Hotel were not enough, the surrounding location also has much to recommend it. Hakone has long been a popular overnight retreat for generations of Tokyoites, because of its easy access (one hour forty minutes from Shinjuku Station in Tokyo to Hakone by the Romancecar express train), its proximity to Mount Fuji, natural hot-spring baths, and other natural attractions. The Kikkaso is conveniently situated for easy access to many local areas of interest.

Using the trundling Tozan railway, the two-carriage switchback service that many guests take from Hakone-Yumoto Station to Miyanoshita Station, which serves the Fujiya, you can go higher and deeper into the Hakone area. Two stops up the line, at Chokoku-no-Mori Station, is the Hakone Open-air Art Museum which has a sprawling collection of outdoor sculptures, as well as a large indoor Picasso collection. One stop on, at the end of the line, comes the town of Gora, from where a funicular train runs to Mount Soun. After taking in the views here, you can take a cable car over the volcanic valley of Owakudani—a barren range dotted with bubbling hot-spring pools and steaming sulfur vents. The cable car journey ends at the attractive Lake Ashi, which offers spectacular views of Mount Fuji when the weather is clear.

Fujiya Hotel, kikkaso inn 菊華荘

Address: 359 Miyanoshita, Hakonemachi, Ashigarashimo-gun, kanagawa, japan 250-0404

Telephone: 0460-82-2211

Website: www.fujiyahotel.jp

Email: info@fujiyahotel.jp

number of rooms: 3

Room rate: ¥¥¥

The three guest rooms at the Fujiya are relatively modest, but fully traditional. That, of course, includes the low table in the main room being moved at night and futon being prepared on the floor, so guests can fall asleep to the gentle scent of tatami.

Guests at the Kikkaso have the option of a traditional kaiseki course featuring dishes like this, but can also dine on French cuisine at the main Fujiya Hotel.

The garden is one of the loveliest features of the Kikkaso, especially with the accent given by the striking vermilion bridge.

SHUHOUKAKU KOGETSU LAKE KAWAGUCHI

About as close to a stay in the shadow of Mount Fuji as you can find, the Kogetsu gives mesmerizing views of Japan’s tallest and most iconic peak from its lakeside berth.

Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest and most iconic peak, has inspired generations of Japanese, from artists like Hokusai and his famed woodblock prints to the haiku master Matsuo Basho. The mountain, snow-capped for much of the year, is visible as far afield as Tokyo, and has been claimed as sacred by Shinto and Buddhism. Mount Fuji has shaped Japanese culture like no other natural monument. And whether seen for the first time or the hundredth, its beauty always captivates.

Though it can be seen from far and wide, few places in Japan offer better views of Fuji-san—as the Japanese call it—than Lake Kawaguchi, sixty-two miles (one hundred kilometers) west of Tokyo in Yamanashi Prefecture’s Five Lakes area. And few places at Lake Kawaguchi boast better views of Fuji than the Kogetsu ryokan on the lake’s northern shoreline. From the Kogetsu’s two communal outdoor hot-spring baths, Fuji appears across the lake in all its symmetrical magnificence. On some winter mornings, when the light is just right, its surface appears reddish, and on some nights, when the moonlight deems it fit, it appears to float on the lake—phenomena known as akafuji (red Fuji) and kurofuji (black Fuji), respectively.

The entrance to the hot-spring baths. The swirly looking character is one ryokan and hot-spring fans will see often. It’s the phonetic hiragana character for “yu”, meaning hot water, but here signifying the hot baths.

Like the baths, all the rooms come with Fuji views; some of the non-standard rooms have their own wood-decked terraces where guests can relax in loungers or soothe their feet in private footbaths while taking in the scenery; others have private open-air baths too. Looking inside, all are bright and airy, with light tatami, walls, and wood, and either futon or simple Western-style beds. Most guests will have dinner served in their room (though large groups can have their own dining rooms), and at the Kogetsu—like most ryokan—that means an elaborate kaiseki affair featuring mostly local, seasonal produce turned into dishes such as richly fragrant matsutake mushroom soup and a shabu shabu hot pot featuring pork from pigs that have been reared on Koshu wine.

What makes Lake Kawaguchi great for a weekend away from Tokyo—besides the scenery, the ryokan, and the hot-spring baths—is the variety of things to do here. It’s an easy drive from Kawaguchiko to the amusement park Fuji-Q Highland, which has a terror-inducing selection of white-knuckle rides. In the lake area itself is the Itchiku Kubota Art Museum, which houses decorative tie-dyed kimono and other fabrics. Around the lake, there are also herb gardens and, in spring, vast fields of pink moss phlox that create a stark contrast to Fuji. The lake area is also close to trails that lead to Fuji’s peak, when the summer climbing season opens and thousands of hikers make the slow trek up to 12,388 feet (3,776 meters) in the hope of seeing the sunrise from Japan’s highest point. More than anything, there’s just something special about being so close to Fuji, soaking outside in a hot bath as the sun sets, or whiling away an afternoon on the decking taking in the views.

Shuhoukaku kogetsu 湖月

Address: 2312 kawaguchi, Fuji kawaguchiko, Minami-tsuru-gun, Yamanashi 401-0304

Telephone: 0555-76-8888

Website: www.kogetu.com

Email: info@kogetu.com

number of rooms: 45

Room rate: ¥¥¥

The Kogetsu’s baths have Fuji views. If the conditions are right, some mornings you can get a glimpse of akafuji (when Fuji takes on a red hue) or of an evening kurofuji (when the mountain appears to float in the moonlight).

The choice of serving dish is just as important as the arrangement of the food itself. During the dinner, you are invited to enjoy not just taste, but to appreciate design.

A member of staff serves a welcome drink shortly after arriving at the guestroom. As well as being the first opportunity to unwind after traveling, the welcome drink service is also the first opportunity to get to know the staff member who (very likely) will be serving and looking after you throughout your stay.

The rotemburo (outdoor bath) comes with lovely lake views, although if you stand up for long you run the risk of flashing any passing boats.

With a shoreline just short of twelve miles (twenty kilometers) long, Lake Kawaguchi is the second-largest of the Fuji Five Lakes. As well as options to take to the water in tour boats or swan-shaped pedalos, there are also pretty walking trails around the lake and a good range of other attractions.

This tipple might look like sake, but it’s actually wine. Japan is far from being a major winemaker, but within Japan, Yamanashi is known for its wines.

The guest rooms have a wonderful simplicity in design, allowing the understated traditional elements to shine.

ASABA SHUZENJI ONSEN, IZU

The Asaba is a standout in so many ways. Not only has it been in the same family since the fifteenth century, it even has its own outdoor Noh stage, where performances take place several times a year.

Ever since the monk Kobo Daishi (aka Kukai)—the founder of Shingon Buddhism—visited what is now the town of Shuzenji in the early 800s and discovered the area’s natural hot-spring source before then establishing the temple that gave its name to the town, Shuzenji has been synonymous with both Buddhism and bathing. With Shuzenji Temple at its heart, the town flourished as a regional center for Shingon Buddhism for nearly five hundred years. Then came a couple of hundred years of gradual decline under the Rinzai sect of Buddhism during the Kamakura era (1185–1333), when Japan was ruled from Kamakura by the Minamoto clan, before the temple was adopted by Soto Buddhism in the late 1400s. Since then, the temple has enjoyed centuries of prominence, despite going through the typical pattern of destruction and rebuild that has affected so many of Japan’s fire-prone historic structures.

The entrance to the Asaba is almost temple like in design, although given Shuzenji’s long association with Buddhism and the Asaba’s own roots as a form of temple lodging, perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise.

Shuzenji is a pretty hot-spring town. The river running through it is transformed by rusts and yellows in autumn, but it’s a pleasant place to stroll any time of year, and it’s close to the Asaba. You could also walk to historic sites like Shuzenji Temple, try the outdoor footbath on the river or just take in the sights with one of the matcha ice creams you can find around here.

It was with the onset of Shuzenji’s Soto years that the town saw the creation of its now famed ryokan, the Asaba, established by the Asaba family in 1489 (and still run by them today). Asaba began as temple lodgings but eventually morphed into an exclusive retreat during the Meiji era (1868–1912)—complete with an outdoor Noh stage visible from guest rooms. Now it is one of a select few properties in Japan with membership of the Relais & Chateaux association of independently owned luxury hotels and restaurants.

The room views, over a large pond toward the Noh stage and a wooded backdrop that turns red and yellow in the fall, are as alluring as the interiors. The rooms are classically appointed with tatami matting, sliding doors and other traditional touches, and the common areas are bright and spacious, featuring light woods, tatami-matted or carpeted hallways, and wide windows that open out onto the pond.

There are plenty of quiet spots at the Asaba where guests can enjoy the ryokan’s calm and tranquility.

Heading for the Noh stage by boat. It’s quite an entrance and an even more unforgettable performance. Noh is staged here a number of times a year, and once announced Asaba books out quickly. If you manage to get a reservation on a performance night, you’ll be able to watch the show looking down on the stage from the comfort of your own room—better than any royal box.

For relaxation, there are rocky outdoor hot-spring baths infused with the sweet scent of yuzu citrus, or a contemporary white-walled lounge serving cocktails and other drinks. There’s also an on-site European-inspired spa with a variety of body and facial treatments. And then there’s the food. Served in-room, the dinner at the Asaba is a supreme example of multi-course kaiseki cuisine incorporating seasonal produce and local specialties, weaving together platters of sashimi and in-season appetizers, with perhaps some river crab or conger eel stuffed with sticky rice, and maybe a hearty hot pot featuring local boar.

From the Asaba, it’s an easy walk to take in the main sights of Shuzenji, crossing the distinctive red Kaede Bridge for a stroll through a small bamboo grove before following the river that cuts through the town to the Tokku-no-Yu footbath on the rocky riverbank—the hot spring that Kobo Daishi is said to have discovered and pronounced as holy on his first visit to the area—and on to the nearby Shuzenji Temple. By the standards of many of Japan’s leading temples and shrines, Shuzenji is quite modest (there’s none of the gilding of Kinkakuji Temple in Kyoto nor the intricate carvings of Toshogu Shrine in Nikko), but like the town—and like the Asaba—there’s a calming peace and quiet in the grounds.

The bathing options include indoor and outdoor communal baths. Both have yuzu citrus floating in them, which gives an intense, yet calming aroma while soaking in the piping hot waters.

As is the case with the communal areas, the guest room’s use of light woods and tatami gives them a refreshing brightness. The Asaba is a very historic property but certainly doesn’t feel like a museum.

Like the dinner, breakfast is a classic Japanese affair, featuring in-season grilled fish, rice, miso soup, egg, and a variety of small vegetable dishes and pickles. As with most ryokan, both meals come as part of the accommodation package and are served in the guest room.

Asaba あさば

Address: 3450-1 Shuzenji, izu, Shizuoka 410-2416

Telephone: 0558-72-7000

Website: www.asaba-ryokan.com/en

Email: asaba@izu.co.jp

number of rooms: 17

Room rate: ¥¥¥¥

Served in-room on a mix of regal lacquerware and fine ceramics, the multi-course kaiseki draws on local produce, which might include river fish or even wild boar depending on the time of year. This being Shizuoka, there will also be excellent seafood on the menu.

Asaba as night falls. The pond adds to both the beauty and the tranquility of the ryokan, and by day it isn’t uncommon to be able to watch kingfishers flitting around it.

KAI ATAMI ATAMI ONSEN, ATAMI

With a pair of aromatic outdoor baths overlooking the ocean and a hillside building that oozes old charm, KAI Atami shines in an area with a rich tradition of ryokan hospitality.

The resort town of Atami, looking out over Sagami Bay on the picturesque Izu-Hanto Peninsula, has long been a holiday destination synonymous with hot-spring bathing and traditional accommodation. For generations, Tokyoites in particular have been making the sixty-two–mile (hundred-kilometer) jaunt west, leaving the rigors of the city behind to relax in the mineral-rich hot-spring waters that feed Atami’s numerous ryokan and unwind in timeless retreats like the KAI Atami ryokan.

Now part of Hoshino Resorts’ KAI range, in many respects the 160-year-old KAI Atami is the quintessential ryokan. After leaving your shoes at the entranceway and then slipping into your cotton yukata gown, you become part of a hushed world where the pace of life slows to allow contemplation and calm; and where the senses can hone in on the finest of details—the mellow aroma of green tea, the sweet scent of tatami, the sound of waves in the distance.

Cobblestones and bamboo lead to the entrance, the gentle lights at the end of the path draw you in.

The building, though home to just sixteen guest rooms, is an intriguing maze of hallways and stairways spread out on a hillside overlooking the bay, close enough to the ocean to hear waves lapping as you fall asleep at night, yet high enough up the hill to take in broad ocean views from the guest rooms and from the large open-air communal cedar baths. Likewise, the open-air lounge halfway up the hillside, where guests can unwind with complimentary drinks, provides not just stellar views, but also offers contemporary relief from the aged woods of the main building and the tatami-mat guest rooms, blending modern touches with traditional ryokan surrounds—a common design theme found in the thirteen KAI properties across Japan.

Whether KAI or Hoshinoya, dinner at any Hoshino Resort property is a special experience. The kaiseki here draws a lot on the area’s highly regarded seafood and is put together with traditional aplomb.

Another of the key concepts of the KAI brand is the incorporation of local traditions and flavors, and in Atami’s case that most notably means tapping into local seafood. The multi-course kaiseki dinner, served in-room, eaten cross-legged at a low table on tatami, varies by season but is always heavy on freshly caught fish and shellfish, with signature dishes like whole red snapper and clams steamed in eight spices that the chefs prepare alongside more traditional kaiseki flavors. It also means giving guests the opportunity to experience Atami’s renowned geisha traditions at a nightly after-dinner show where geisha perform traditional dances and songs, before playing imperial court games with guests, such as the surprisingly addictive fan-throwing. It might sound touristy, but bear in mind that geisha go through years of training to perfect their arts, their movements, and each and every manner; and despite geisha playing a prominent role in guidebook and travel brochure imagery, to actually spend time being entertained by one is an experience usually out of reach of travelers to Japan (and most Japanese). Like staying in a historic ryokan, it’s an opportunity to absorb and interact with tradition, not just observe it from afar.

It isn’t just Kyoto that has a long geisha heritage. Tokyo, of course, does too. And so does Atami. Celebrating that, a local geisha performs nightly after dinner at KAI Atami, giving guests the opportunity to enjoy traditional music and dance, but also take part in fun games like fan-tossing.

Chrysanthemums, or kiku, to use the Japanese word, are a noble flower in Japan. Not only is one used on the Imperial Family’s seal, the flower is also said to represent longevity and rejuvenation. In that respect, it’s a fitting choice to have them floating on the KAI Atami’s natural hot-spring baths, which themselves (according to Japanese tradition) can alleviate numerous ailments and rejuvenate both physically and mentally.

As with all the best ryokan, it would be tempting not to leave the KAI Atami during a stay, but Atami does have some attractions that are worth exploring. The two market streets leading away from Atami Station are something of a must-see for foodies, home to stalls specializing in all sorts of dried fish (all specialties of Shizuoka Prefecture) as well as Japanese sweets, and local fruits and vegetables. Then there is the MOA Museum with its 3,500 or so paintings, its Noh theater, and its gilded tearoom, all set atop the hill that overlooks Atami Station and provides sweeping views over Sagami Bay—a sight almost as impressive as watching the sunset while soaking in one of the KAI’s outdoor baths.

kAi Atami 界 熱海

Address: 759 izusan, Atami, Shizuoka, japan 413-0002

Telephone: 0570-073-011

Website: www.hoshinoresorts.com/en/resortsandhotels/kai/atami-ryokan

Email: info@kai-atami.jp

number of rooms: 16

Room rate: ¥¥¥

A staff member serving the signature red snapper dish. Staff at the KAI Atami and other Hoshino Resorts properties don’t wear traditional clothing like kimono, but rather a uniform that feels like a blend of contemporary and tradition, much like the Hoshino ryokan themselves.

The guest rooms represent simple, minimalist Japanese tradition at its very best.

The outdoor lounge area, located halfway between the two outdoor baths, has great views and a fridge stocked with complimentary beer and other drinks—ideal post bath.

No, it’s not the same bath again. Both the large wooden communal tubs at the KAI look similar and are decorated with flowers. The difference is that they are gender-separated baths—men and women here bathe apart (as is typical at any ryokan) but both get great views and a similarly luxurious bathing experience.

You often hear of ryokan being in tune with nature, but this takes that a step beyond. This tree has been in-situ for hundreds of years and the ryokan has grown around it. It actually grows through a hallway in the lower part of the complex.

Seasonal is key with kaiseki. In autumn, the KAI Atami will serve matsutake mushroom in a variety of ways, including in a soup that brings out the matsutake’s full earthiness.

YAGYU-NO-SHO SHUZENJI ONSEN, IZU