Kaike Onsen Kikunoya
皆生温泉 皆生菊乃家
Area photo — not the ryokan itself · Kaike Onsen in Yonago, Tottori · 663highland / CC BY 2.5
A friendly 31-room beachfront inn with free-flowing salt-spring baths, nodoguro and live-tank seafood, and the president's own folk-song concerts in the lobby — but the shared baths are small and the building shows its age
Kikunoya opened on 1 January 1964 as an annex of the Kikusui Ryokan — the first reinforced-concrete inn in Kaike Onsen — took its current name in 1989 and was rebuilt in October 1997, keeping the old entrance waterfall and the live-fish tank. It's a 31-room, seven-floor house set directly on the beach, with sea-view rooms looking over Miho Bay, kana calligraphy on the walls and a lobby where the second-generation president has sung folk songs on weekend nights since around 2003 (a 2022 blogger heard there had been over 2,000 shows). Only a handful of recent first-hand blogs exist — stays in August 2022 and February 2026 — so most recent evidence here comes from booking-site reviews: it rates 4.43 across 1,451 reviews on one major site (service 4.52, dinner 4.50) and 4.6 across 1,494 on another (rooms, dinner, service and cleanliness 4.7). Guests praise the sea views and sunrises, salt-grilled nodoguro, Tottori wagyu shabu-shabu and crab, a prize-winning breakfast, upgrades and warm, attentive staff, and the baths draw Kaike's salty spring free-flowing. The baths are also the weak spot, scoring 4.2–4.28: guests in 2025–2026 found them small, with six or seven showers and queues before dinner, a cramped, sometimes lukewarm outdoor tub, and a men's outdoor bath visible from the beach path. Other complaints: a September 2026 bath breakdown, a dirty toilet on arrival and an unapologetic response in December 2025, ageing rooms, and dinners that some found ordinary for the price. Two-meal plans run about ¥23,000–27,000 per person, over ¥30,000 with in-room dining or abalone.
Room Selection Guide
What the guests who stayed here actually recommendRecommended
Sea-side Japanese rooms (10 tatami, with bath and toilet)
The view is the point: guests in 2025–2026 describe the Sea of Japan filling the window, sunrises over the bay, squid-boat lights at night and the Miho-no-seki lighthouse. Rooms along the beach all face the sea similarly, so a higher floor matters less. The 'B' sea-side type comes with dinner in your room or a private room; the renovated Japanese-modern twin on the fifth floor (10 tatami, Magniflex mattresses) is compact but comfortable, according to an October 2026 review.
Top-floor (7F) semi-special and special rooms
The semi-special room is 12.5 tatami plus an entry room, with a sofa and massage chair; the special room adds an 8-tatami room, twin beds and a hinoki view bath — though the inn notes that bath is not onsen water. A 2021 blogger in the semi-special room loved the space and view but found in-room dining (automatic with this type) less relaxing than eating elsewhere, and the food not quite worth the room's premium.
Request To Avoid
Town-side rooms (8 or 10 tatami, toilet but no bath) and the 18-tatami family room
The cheapest rooms face the town and Mt Daisen rather than the sea — several 2025–2026 guests enjoyed the Daisen view and some were upgraded to the sea side, but an October 2026 guest in a town-side room on a lighter dinner plan rated location 1. Windows in sea-view rooms are locked (May 2026), and an August 2026 family found the building and rooms showing their age.
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Dining Deep Dive
Breakfast Consensus
4.5/5A Japanese set breakfast built around Sakaiminato bera-garei flounder, dried overnight and kept hot at the table, with local tofu — twice a prize-winner at a national breakfast festival and one of the most praised parts of the stay; served from 7:00–8:30 in the restaurant or dining hall
If you want the weekend folk-song show (usually 21:00 in the lobby, free; requests welcome), book a Saturday or Sunday night. In summer the beach is steps away: guests used free sandals and towels and an outdoor shower room, even after check-out. Free pick-up from the Kaike Kankō Center bus stop if you call ahead; parking is free (30 cars).
Dinner Insights
4.4/5Kaiseki of local seafood from nearby ports, kept alive in the inn's own tank: a typical menu brings white squid and three local fish as sashimi, salt-grilled nodoguro, Tottori wagyu shabu-shabu, tempura and live abalone cooked at the table, with whole red snow crab in summer (April–October) and Matsuba crab in winter, plus an original nama-zake. Reviewers single out the nodoguro, the generous portions and patient, chatty service over two-hour crab dinners. Critics: crab that tasted frozen (November 2025), steamed, undercooked fish (May 2026) and a lighter 'Shiosai' plan that disappointed for its price (October 2026). Dining is in a screened tatami hall, the sea-view restaurant, a private room or your room, depending on plan.
Onsen & Wellness Realities
Kaike Onsen's sodium-calcium chloride spring (neutral), nicknamed the 'salt spring' because it rises from beneath the sea. The source runs at 65–83°C, so the inn adds water to cool it, but the official site says the baths are free-flowing (kakenagashi) rather than recirculated; a 2016 blogger copied the posted data as 63.8°C, pH 7.3, no heating or recirculation, water added and disinfected. Guests note the salty taste and silky skin afterwards.
Two single-sex baths, each with an indoor tub and a small hinoki outdoor tub facing the sea: men on the first floor, women on the second, with no swap (15:00–1:00 and 5:00–9:30). No private baths. Guests praise the water but say the baths are small for the inn — six or seven washing stations, queues before dinner, an outdoor tub that fits about two and can be lukewarm, and a sea view you only see standing up. The men's first-floor outdoor tub is screened, but bloggers in 2021 and 2022 and a 2026 guest locked eyes with people walking on the beach.
No policy found on the official site or Japanese booking sites — contact the inn.
Local Warnings & Nuances
- 01
Check-in 15:00–22:00, check-out 10:00. Dinner starts between 18:00 and 19:30, breakfast between 7:00 and 8:30.
- 02
Cancellation: 30% from 3 days before, 50% the day before, 100% on the day; stricter rules apply over Golden Week, Obon and New Year.
- 03
Allergies are handled only with at least 3 days' notice, and the inn declines guests with severe allergies (anaphylaxis or an EpiPen prescription).
- 04
Children are welcome: primary-school children pay 70% and ages 3–6 pay 50% with a children's plate; a family in 2026 was given a baby chair and spoon. Wheelchairs are accepted, with an accessible toilet; no pets.
- 05
The baths are the most common complaint and a September 2026 family lost theirs to a breakdown — if the baths are your priority, ask about the bath status and expect a small, busy space at peak times.
Before your stay
Souvenirs from Kaike Onsen and practical help for your trip.
Kaike Onsen souvenirs on Rakuten
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Sources
The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on
More Consensus Reports
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Kaike Onsen, Yonago, Tottori — on the seafront at the south end of Kaike's Kaiyū Beach, about 15 minutes by taxi from JR Yonago Station and about a 7-minute walk from the Kaike Onsen Kankō Center bus stop
10 sources
Kaike Hakusen (formerly Yukibou Hakusen)
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A tatami-floored seafront inn on the Sea of Japan where every room except the singles faces the water and 16 have their own open-air bath — but those room baths are heated tap water, not onsen, and reviews since the 2024 change of owner are more mixed
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Kusatsu Onsen, Gunma — at the southern entrance to the town, about a 10-minute walk from the Yubatake hot-water field, with a free shuttle from the Kusatsu Onsen bus terminal
10 sources
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Kusatsu Onsen, Gunma — in a quiet villa district on the hill above town, a 15–20-minute walk from the Yubatake (uphill on the way back), with free shuttles to the Kusatsu Onsen bus terminal
11 sources
Yuyado Toki no Niwa
湯宿 季の庭
A tatami-floored Kusatsu inn where all 64 rooms have an open-air onsen bath, plus 23 tubs shared with a sister inn — but the room baths are filled on demand rather than free-flowing, it's a 15–20-minute walk from the Yubatake, and 2025–2026 guests report an ageing building
- Private Onsen Rooms
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要庵西富家
An eight-room sukiya inn in the heart of Kyoto where dinner is the point — a Michelin-starred kaiseki kitchen you tour before eating, hinoki baths in every room, and two MICHELIN Keys since 2026 — but it isn't an onsen, the water runs very hot, and old floors carry sound
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10 sources
Tawaraya Ryokan
俵屋旅館
Kyoto's oldest standing inn, bookable online only since 2026: 18 one-of-a-kind sukiya rooms, nearly everything down to the soap designed in-house, and koyamaki-wood tubs instead of a hot spring — from about ¥164,000 a night for two
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Area photoMisasa OnsenClassic
Misasa Onsen, Tottori — on the Mitoku river by Misasa Bridge in the middle of the hot-spring town, about 20 minutes by the inn's free shuttle (book by the day before) from JR Kurayoshi Station
10 sources
Misasa Onsen Izanro Iwasaki
三朝温泉 依山楼 岩崎
Misasa's century-old grand inn, host to emperors and writers: a 12-bath garden onsen with free-flowing cave and rock tubs and private-room kaiseki — but it's a big 74-room concrete house with fixed air conditioning, thinning service and towels you carry to the bath yourself
- Historic Ryokan
Photo credits: Kaike Onsen in Yonago, Tottori · 663highland / CC BY 2.5 / Yubatake at night, Kusatsu Onsen, Gunma · Σ64 / CC BY 4.0 / Arashiyama and the Hozu River, Kyoto · KimonBerlin / CC BY-SA 2.0 / The onsen street of Misasa Onsen, Tottori · Miya.m / CC BY-SA 3.0
Kaike Onsen Kikunoya
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