Atami Sekitei

A village of sukiya cottages scattered through a 3,000-tsubo stone garden in the Atami hills, with onsen in every room's bath and much-praised kaiseki — but you walk outdoors over stone steps to everything, the shared baths are open-air only, and the cottages show their age

Atami Sekitei is the inn the Sekitei name grew from: on a hillside in Wada-chō above central Atami, a stone garden of about 3,000 tsubo (roughly one hectare) — Iyo water-stones, Kurama stone, old lanterns, koi ponds and little streams — threaded with stepping-stone paths and a bridge over a public road, and dotted with sukiya-style cottages. There are 24 rooms; the inn says every room's indoor bath uses its own hot spring, and five rooms add a private open-air bath. Both meals are kaiseki in Uzu, a renovated dining hall with private rooms. Japanese guests rate it 4.61 across 161 reviews on one leading site (food and service both 4.78) and 4.23 across 298 on another, where breakfast (4.45) and dinner (4.40) score highest and facilities (4.08) lowest. Bloggers writing between 2023 and 2025 loved the cottage-village feel, the free fridge drinks including bottled beer, the inn's chestnut sweets, the seasonal kaiseki and the care shown to small children; 2026 reviewers praise the okami and staff, from anniversary gifts to driving a guest who fell on the paving to hospital. The catches: you walk outdoors over uneven stone and steep steps to dinner and the baths, which are open-air only, with no indoor tub and a washing area mostly open to the rain; the cottages are Showa-era buildings, renovated inside but with worn tatami and fittings noted in September 2026; in-room baths can be small or lukewarm; and one September 2026 guest found the kaiseki arriving two dishes at a time, a post-COVID practice. The inn's weekday list rates run from ¥30,800 for a plain room and ¥39,600–49,500 for a cottage up to ¥88,000 and more for the special rooms.