Dewa No Yu Houraikan

The meals and bath alone deserve full marks. The fish dishes were all brought out hot: fresh sashimi, crisp, freshly fried tempura, a thick, steaming piece of simmered flounder, and plump grilled sweetfish. I’ve never stayed somewhere where every dish arrived piping hot. The freshly made handmade Hitachi soba was fragrant and sweet even plain, served cold and firm with a slightly sweet dipping sauce. Breakfast was excellent as well, with tender salmon, tasty pickles, and homemade rice cooked just how I like it. I booked after reading about the hot springs. My second-floor room had a shared men’s and women’s toilet, but there’s a very clean women-only toilet with a bidet downstairs. The building is quite old, though my room had air conditioning and a fridge stocked with bottled water. The mineral spring bath is heated, and even the tap water comes from the spring. Lots of bubbles formed on my skin, which felt very smooth. The water was about 39°C when I arrived, ideal for a slow soak, and had warmed a little by bedtime. The bath is open 24 hours, and because day-use bathing isn’t currently offered, I could return as often as I liked before checkout. I’d read that you might hear next door, but there were no other guests, so it was quiet, with mountains behind and rice fields in front.

I went alone, a man in my late 30s or early 40s, and the bath felt great. The soba that gets such high praise was excellent, and dinner also included a delicious anglerfish hot pot. I visited in late March 2025 and wondered if that’s a seasonal dish at Ibaraki inns, perhaps only available through then.

The handmade soba had a clean, natural buckwheat flavor and tasted really good. I stopped in for lunch with a tour group and had the tempura soba.

The inn staff were very kind, though I wasn’t pleased with the meal or bath. The sashimi was still thawing when it was served. There was a lot of the main course, but no palate cleanser, and I didn’t think it tasted very good. The tempura batter was so thick that I left some uneaten. Sorry, but the bath wasn’t very clean either.