Yarimikan

Riverside open-air baths facing the Northern Alps, four free private baths and Hida beef, in a 200-year-old farmhouse — rustic by design, with mixed bathing and a lot of steps

Yarimikan opened in 1925 and is built around a 200-year-old village-headman's farmhouse moved here and set beside the Kamata River, facing the peaks of the Northern Alps. The inn is disarmingly honest that its riverside baths are 'by no means modern, nor especially comfortable' — and Japanese guests love them anyway: baths score 4.9 across 487 reviews on one major booking site, where the inn averages 4.7, and 4.83 on another. The signature is Yarimi-no-yu, a mixed open-air bath with a view of Mount Yarigatake; women get their own open-air bath and a morning women-only slot, bathing wraps are provided, and there are four free private baths you simply lock with a wooden tag. Evenings mean irori-side amazake and a dinner of 12–15 dishes with Hida beef, mornings a hoba-miso breakfast and mochi pounded in the lobby. The criticisms come with the setting: outdoor baths that can run lukewarm, no washing area at the riverside baths, a mixed bath where the women's changing area can be seen, steep stone steps and no lift, dark folk-style rooms with beams you can hit your head on, stink bugs from October to March, and occasional mix-ups. Standard rooms cost about ¥21,000–25,000 per person with two meals.