Takinoya

Four kinds of Noboribetsu spring water, barefoot tatami corridors and private-room kaiseki — but only a dozen rooms have onsen of their own, and extras are thin for the price

Takinoya is one of Noboribetsu's long-established upmarket inns — more than ninety years old by its own account — and it makes the most of the town's extraordinary water: four different spring types piped from Jigokudani feed a top-floor bath (salt and iron springs) and a basement garden bath (radium and sulphur). Japanese guests rate the baths highest (4.78 on one leading site, 4.7 across 759 reviews on another, where the inn averages 4.7). They also love the arrival — valet parking, matcha and a sweet — tatami corridors you walk barefoot, and kaiseki in private dining rooms from a Japanese head chef working with a French chef, with local flounder and Tokachi beef or abalone shabu-shabu. Only the twelve D and DW rooms have their own open-air bath of flowing spring water; the other rooms' baths are not onsen. Complaints cluster around value and upkeep: rooms with lingering odours, worn fittings, a broken fireplace and a false fire alarm, tiny portions for one 2026 guest, no free drinks or extras, a pushy sale of paid coffee, and a small top-floor bath with two showers that closes at 9:00. Expect from about ¥81,400 for two with two meals, and around ¥100,000 for a room with its own onsen.