Ryokan Tanigawa

A 28-room inn below Mount Tanigawa where Osamu Dazai once wrote, loved for its free-flowing baths, private dining rooms and a stream of free snacks by the hearth — the sister of Bettei Senjuan at a fraction of the price, though views are limited and the baths run hot

Ryokan Tanigawa is the older, more affordable sister of Bettei Senjuan in Tanigawa Onsen. The company dates from 1981, but the site has deeper roots: in 1936 Osamu Dazai spent almost a month at Kawakuboya, the inn's predecessor (now its car park), on Yasunari Kawabata's advice, and wrote the story 'Sōseiki' there — a small gallery recreates that room. The 28 rooms run from standard 10-mat tatami rooms to renovated Japanese-modern bed rooms and a few suites with their own open-air bath. Four of the inn's own spring sources feed the shared baths and those in-room tubs free-flowing. Japanese guests rate it 4.7 across 1,229 reviews on Jalan (service 4.9) and 4.49 across 663 on Rakuten. Six bloggers who stayed between 2022 and 2025 and dozens of 2026 reviewers praise the same things: every dinner is served in a private or semi-private dining room, the breakfast half-buffet of small dishes, staff who remember names, and the free hearth-side extras — miso-glazed konnyaku in the afternoon, fresh juice after dinner, maitake miso soup in the morning, plus a sake tasting corner. The complaints are smaller but recurring: baths that feel too hot (and lukewarm on a snowy December 2025 day), a high fence around the outdoor bath, rooms facing the road or car park, a maze-like building, chilly corridors in winter, insects in autumn, and dinners some find merely 'average'. The bookable private outdoor bath sits beside building works that began in May 2026. Two-meal stays cost about ¥20,000–30,000 per person in 2026, more for a room with its own bath.