Hakone Kowakien Mikawaya Ryokan

The 1883 inn credited with starting Kowakudani Onsen: a cultural-property main building, a 16,000㎡ azalea garden and its own spring — book a room with a private open-air bath, because the bath-less twins, lukewarm water and slow service on busy nights are the recurring complaints

Mikawaya opened in 1883, and the inn says its founder, who piped a nearby spring into a bathhouse, started Kowakudani Onsen. Its main building, with a karahafu-gabled entrance, is a registered tangible cultural property; the painter Takehisa Yumeji, the poets Yosano Tekkan and Akiko and Sun Yat-sen stayed, and Sun Yat-sen's room still has his calligraphy over the lintel. Below lies Hōraien, a 16,000㎡ garden with about 30,000 azaleas in bloom from late April to mid-May. Since 2020 the Fujita Kanko group has run it as a 25-room inn, and the main building was renovated in the second half of 2025. Japanese guests rate it 4.2 across 63 reviews on one major site (service 4.8, breakfast 5.0, baths 4.6) and 4.4 across 47 on another. Bloggers from 2022 to 2026 loved the Taishō-era corridors, warped old glass and the little museum room, and reviewers single out the detached cottages and the in-room open-air baths fed by the inn's own spring; the shared baths are modest, and the inn's 'free-flowing everywhere' claim conflicts with one booking site, which lists the water as diluted and recirculated. Dinner centres on a rice-koji amazake hotpot or wagyu shabu-shabu, and one January 2026 guest found it far better than on an earlier visit. The complaints are consistent: chilly corridors, stairs and no lift, baths some found lukewarm, and in 2026 crowded check-ins, a 40-minute breakfast wait and slow dinners. Two-meal stays booked in 2026 ran about ¥24,000–30,000+ per person.