Kozantei Ubuya

A big, celebration-themed lakeside inn where every room faces Mt Fuji across Lake Kawaguchi — but the in-room open-air baths aren't onsen, dinner is now a buffet or shabu-shabu, and Fuji often hides in summer

Ubuya grew out of a campsite opened in 1945 on the Ubuyagasaki headland, became the Ubuyagasaki Hotel in 1948 and took the name Kozantei Ubuya in 1986; its wings were rebuilt between 1986 and 2009, and today the company is simply 'Ubuya'. It's a 51-room house built square-on to Mt Fuji, so every room, the baths, the lounge and the glass-walled dining hall look across Lake Kawaguchi to the mountain. Its theme is 'celebrating life': happi coats, a self-service photo studio, Fuji-shaped cakes and staff who join in birthdays and anniversaries. Japanese guests rate it 4.29 across 727 reviews on one major site, with location at 4.70, baths at 4.57 and rooms at 4.55; another site lists 769 reviews but no longer shows a score, because too few were posted in the past year. Bloggers from 2022 to 2026 loved the views, the spacious rooms, the free lounge with sweets made on the spot and how easy it is with babies and grandparents. Know before you book: the in-room open-air baths aren't hot-spring water — only the shared baths are — and the old kaiseki courses have gone; dinner is now a seasonal buffet or A5 wagyu shabu-shabu in a dashi broth. Complaints from 2024–2026 include a buffet one guest found not worth ¥36,000 a head (salty, thawed crab), cold rice, rushed courses, a bath washroom found uncleaned at 5am, a tatami smell, and a guest mix now mostly from overseas. Two-meal stays for two run about ¥72,600–127,600.