Ginzan Onsen Fujiya

Kengo Kuma's eight-room inn in the heart of Ginzan — five private onsen baths, and a design that sometimes forgets practicality

Fujiya is a three-storey wooden inn at the centre of Ginzan Onsen, renovated by the architect Kengo Kuma from a building around a century old, with just eight rooms, walls of handmade Echizen washi paper and screens of fine bamboo. Japanese guests agree on its two great strengths. First, the baths: there is no large shared bath, only five private onsen baths — stone, hiba wood, bamboo, an underground bath and a semi-open-air bath — open 24 hours, with water one guest described as leaving skin silky smooth. Second, the food, served in your room at both dinner and breakfast, which scores highest of any category (4.56 out of 5) on one Japanese review site. The recurring complaint is that the design wins over usability: rooms without numbers, entrances that are hard to find, fridges and safes hidden in the walls, hook latches on bathroom doors that one guest flagged as a concern for elderly guests, and a lobby too dim for older eyes. Value is the other sore point — the same site rates cost-performance 3.38 and puts overall satisfaction at 3.32, eighth of thirteen inns in Ginzan. Come for the architecture, the private baths and the setting; expect a few moments of hunting for light switches.