Shiragamiyatate Togenkyo no Yado Hikage Onsen

The price was reasonable, which was a nice surprise given how much we enjoyed the stay. The facilities were clean and well maintained, there were several private baths, the meals were delicious, and the staff were friendly. It was the perfect place to stay.

The spring water turns pure white when it meets the air. It flows into the large shared bath and five private baths, where you can soak with views of green mountains in summer or snowy scenery in winter. One of the four hot spring outlets supplies iron-containing water, with a different quality from the sulfur springs. Reserve one of the three special rooms if you want to bathe in that spring. For context, hot spring deposits form when dissolved minerals and other components solidify or precipitate as the water reaches the surface and changes in temperature, pressure, and pH. They can also clog hot water pipes, making them a real challenge for the people who maintain hot springs.

The staff were wonderful, especially Munakata-san, who really earned the fifth star for this review. He chatted with us in English to help us feel at home, cleared overnight snow from our car, and often offered to take pictures. He's very good at it, too. The place is a beautiful, peaceful winter getaway, with clean, well-kept rooms. The onsen, especially the bookable private baths, are beautiful. As I understand it, the water comes from a sulfur spring, so there's a smell you have to get used to.

The staff were nice, the food was good, and the facilities were very clean. This renovated Japanese-style inn keeps the frame of the old wooden building. In the main bath, there's an indoor and an outdoor option, with different kinds of hot spring water. The indoor bath is cloudy white sulfur water that tastes salty and bitter, without any slimy feel. The outdoor bath is a similar sulfur spring, but saltier. The strongest drawback is that the water or nearby surroundings in the outdoor bath smell like sewage. The private Menke yukko bath is like the main indoor bath and was nice. Urugeru yukko smelled even more like sewage than the main outdoor bath, and I couldn't get used to it. Aside from that smell, everything was excellent.