Notoya Ryokan

The towered Taisho-era inn everyone photographs in Ginzan — warm service, a cave bath and a waterfall-view bath, but book a river-side room and expect an audience

Notoya was founded in 1892, and its three-storey wooden main building with a tower, from the 1920s, is the image of Ginzan Onsen — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property since 1997, with its original Taisho staircase, a 1932 plaster relief and a lounge inside the tower. Japanese guests adore the service: it averages 4.8 across 72 reviews on one major booking site, with 4.9 for service, and reviewers mention the senior okami, a kitchen that swapped carp for nodoguro when asked, and red coats lent for winter walks. Baths are varied rather than grand: compact, hot large baths with outdoor tubs, a free private cave bath (just flip the sign and lock the door), and a hilltop bath facing the Shirogane waterfall — 85 steps up, closed in the snow season, and closed from October 2025 after bear sightings. Dinner is a private-room kaiseki of Obanazawa beef, duck and local dishes such as carp simmered in sweet soy. The drawbacks come with fame: people photograph the inn late into the night, and river-side guests feel watched; annex and single rooms may have no view at all; stink bugs appear in autumn; the in-room baths are plain tap water; and the menu barely changes between visits.