Beniya Mukayu

A calm, design-led ryokan with an onsen on every terrace and a kitchen that wins Japanese critics over — the layout is where it stumbles

Japanese accounts of Beniya Mukayu agree on what makes it special: rooms named after traditional Japanese colours, each with its own open-air bath of source-fed hot-spring water looking onto a mountain garden built around a red pine said to be over 300 years old, and Kaga kaiseki that reviewers call outstanding — one guest singled out charcoal-grilled nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) with seven vegetables, hairy crab in amber jelly and a Noto beef hot pot. The inn leans into craft and wellness: yukata and slippers designed with textile artist Kozue Hibino, its own 'Yakushiyama' toiletries developed with a University of Tokyo chemist, a library, a spa offering shiatsu and oil treatments, and apple juice on arrival. The criticism is consistent and practical rather than about quality. On one Japanese review site, 37 reviews average 3.45 out of 5, with complaints about stairs just inside room doors, having to step outside the main building to reach some rooms (cold in winter), a very narrow lift, cramped washrooms, and fixed bamboo blinds around the private bath that block the garden view you came for. A few reviewers also found some older staff too chatty. Book it for the food, the baths and the quiet; ask about stairs and room access if mobility matters.