Ryokan in Iwaki Yumoto

Both reviewed inns are in Iwaki-Yumoto Onsen in Iwaki, Fukushima, a spa town that bills itself as one of Japan's three oldest hot springs. Both are a 6–8-minute walk from JR Yumoto Station on the Jōban Line (a little over two hours from Tokyo by limited express) and about 10 minutes' drive from Spa Resort Hawaiians, and both draw the town's sulphur–sodium chloride–sulphate spring, which each inn says flows straight through its baths. The town is known for separating bed and board and has few dinner options, so room-only and breakfast stays are common. Iwaso is a six-storey, 19-room former kappō inn on a quiet side street that no longer serves dinner. Furutakiya, founded in 1695 and run by the founding family's 16th generation, is a 54-room modern block in the middle of town looking over the Onsen Shrine, and since 2021 has housed a private Nuclear Disaster Archive Museum in a former banquet room.

Iwaso (value) suits budget, solo and early-rising travellers who are happy to eat dinner in town: stays from about ¥5,500–7,700 per person, 4-tatami singles with their own unit bath, a glass-walled top-floor bath over the town open from 15:00 until 9:00, and a much-praised breakfast with eggs cooked to order and the okami's homemade jams (¥880 to add on). There is no dinner, no outdoor or private bath, people with tattoos are refused entry to the bath, and 2026 guests mention corridor lights off by about 22:00, a boiler failure in March and windows that may be visible from outside. Furutakiya (classic) suits families and anyone who wants more ways to bathe: two large baths that swap between men and women, a ninth-floor open-air bath for staying guests, a private onsen bath opened in 2025 (¥3,300 for 45 minutes), three seventh-floor Kashinrō rooms with their own onsen tub, a kids' space with over 300 picture books, and set Japanese dinners in a 10th-floor hall; two-meal stays run about ¥19,400–30,800 per person. It is a big, ageing house that takes school groups, and 2026 reviews mention insects, a rain leak in the old wing, long breakfast queues and crowded baths, while one blog found the dinner poor value; the inn is closed for in-house work from 12 to 16 October 2026.