Onyado Chikurintei

Eleven rooms, each with its own open-air bath, set inside the Mifuneyama Rakuen garden, with in-room kaiseki on old Imari and Arita ware and two MICHELIN Keys — but the onsen is heated and not free-flowing, and some rooms show their age

Chikurintei sits inside Mifuneyama Rakuen, a garden laid out in 1845 beneath the cliffs of Mount Mifune; the Emperor and Empress stayed in its Shūhō suite in 1992, and title matches in shogi and go have been played there. It's run by the family that also owns the neighbouring Mifuneyama Rakuen Hotel, and it has held two MICHELIN Keys since 2025. There are just 11 rooms, from 58㎡ to the 250㎡ Shūhō, every one with a private open-air bath — four open straight onto the garden by their own path — and guests get free entry to the garden (including night light-ups) and to the sister hotel's sauna bath. Japanese guests rate it 4.78 across 31 reviews on one leading site, with food at 4.97: in-room kaiseki with sea bream, abalone in liver sauce, Saga beef fillet and clay-pot Koshihikari, served on antique Imari and Arita porcelain, followed by a yudōfu breakfast. The caveats: the alkaline simple spring is lukewarm at source (about 35–36°C) and is heated rather than free-flowing — one guest noticed recirculation — and some rooms' separate indoor baths use heated groundwater, not onsen. Guests also mention dated washrooms and toilets in some rooms, cold corridors, insects and overgrown paths in summer, and a booking that's hard to get. Children under junior-high age aren't accepted. Two-person stays start at about ¥115,000 with two meals.