Tsukioka Onsen Hirosekan Hiten no Ne
月岡温泉 広瀬館 ひてんの音
Area photo — not the ryokan itself · Footbath in Tsukioka Onsen, Shibata, Niigata · 663highland / CC BY 2.5
A 12-room family inn in Tsukioka with emerald sulphur water, two free private baths and both meals served in your room — guests love the food and service, but some rooms are dated, winter heating can be a kerosene heater, and the water runs hot
Hirosekan Hiten no Ne is a 12-room inn in Tsukioka Onsen founded in 1923 by a couple whose story the inn tells on its website: one sailed to Hawaii to find the other, who was wrestling sumo on Maui under the name Hirosegawa — the inn's website still shows the mawashi belt. Today the fifth-generation owner cooks a monthly-changing kaiseki, and the okami arranges the seasonal flowers that fill the house. The draw is simple: Tsukioka's emerald-green, strongly sulphurous water from a well next door, two private baths you can book free for 40 minutes, and dinner and breakfast both served in your room — something a November 2025 travelogue said it hadn't found since Hakone Ginyu. Japanese guests rate it 4.68 across 1,045 reviews on Rakuten Travel, with dinner and breakfast both at 4.82 and baths at 4.72; most recent evidence comes from these booking-site reviews, backed by travelogues from 2023 and 2025. Reviewers from 2024 to 2026 praise generous, seasonal food (A4 wagyu sukiyaki, Ōma tuna, a whole grilled nodoguro on some plans), warm and attentive staff, an old but spotless building and the open-air private bath Hiten no Ne, which comes with its own lounge and feels like a room with an outdoor bath. The catches are mostly about rooms and fittings: rooms score lowest at 4.58; a March 2026 guest on the cheapest plan got a kerosene fan heater in a room without an extractor fan and had to put on slippers to reach the toilet; a January 2026 guest said the photos show only the best rooms; and several found the water very hot. There's no lift and no shared outdoor bath. Two-meal stays start at ¥19,800 per person; the popular wagyu plan runs about ¥33,200–36,900 per person for two.
Room Selection Guide
What the guests who stayed here actually recommendRecommended
Japanese rooms of 10–15 tatami (with washlet toilet), on the popular wagyu plan
The standard booking for most reviewers: every room is decorated differently, with tatami, a tokonoma with a scroll and fresh flowers, and the bath and toilet separate. A May 2023 travelogue stayed in Kōraku on the main building's second floor, looking out towards a pond of koi, and a May 2026 family was upgraded to a larger room after Golden Week. Reviewers in 2025–2026 call it calm and quiet.
The larger 'Yuttari Hirobiro' Japanese rooms, or a ground-floor room
The roomier type on Rakuten Travel; a January 2024 guest had a separate study corner. Only two rooms are on the ground floor (from ¥24,200 for a solo traveller, on request) — useful if stairs are a problem, since there's no lift. A March 2026 repeat guest recommends a plan that guarantees a main-building room in winter, which that guest believes has central air conditioning.
Request To Avoid
Cheapest 'rooms assigned by the inn' plans, especially in winter
In March 2026 a guest on the cheapest plan got a room heated by an open kerosene fan heater with no extractor fan, and had to put on slippers to reach the toilet and washbasin; an October 2026 guest also found the toilet and washbasin far apart. In December 2023 a room's air conditioning was broken and only a kerosene stove was provided. A January 2026 guest said the listing photos show only the top rooms and found theirs dated. Amenities are basic — 'below a business hotel', one May 2026 guest wrote — and wall-mounted hairdryers are weak (2023, 2025). It isn't stated whether in-room baths use spring water.
Know which room you want?
Check live rates and availability for Tsukioka Onsen Hirosekan Hiten no Ne.
Rakuten Travel, one of Japan's biggest booking sites, lists plans and prices in Japanese — your browser's translate button works on it.
We may earn a commission if you book through these links, at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure
Dining Deep Dive
Breakfast Consensus
4.6/5A set Japanese breakfast served in your room at 7:30–8:30 — colourful small dishes and yudōfu — rated 4.82 on Rakuten Travel; one July 2026 guest found the aosa-seaweed miso soup too salty
Ask for your private-bath slot and choose between Hiten no Ne (open-air hinoki, with a lounge) and Tenkudari (indoor) when you book — slots go first come, first served, and a May 2026 guest couldn't get the time they wanted. The water is hot and strongly sulphurous: take a drink in with you — the inn says a ten-yen coin dropped in changes colour within minutes. Luggage can be left free if you're golfing or sightseeing.
Dinner Insights
4.6/5A monthly kaiseki cooked by the fifth-generation owner and served course by course in your room (in a private dining room at busy times), starting between 18:00 and 19:00. The most popular plan centres on A4 wagyu sukiyaki; others add a whole salt-grilled nodoguro, and a 'small portions, better ingredients' plan suits lighter eaters. Blogs and reviews mention Ōma tuna sashimi, crab-miso tofu, and kamameshi rice cooked at the table. Most find it lavish — 'more than we could finish' (2024, 2025). Complaints are minor: corn rice smelling of the rice cooker (July 2026), a family member who wanted more (2023), and a family with a baby moved to a private dining room without notice (June 2025).
Onsen & Wellness Realities
Tsukioka's sulphur–sodium chloride spring (weakly alkaline), emerald green, from a well beside the inn; the inn says it's 100% spring water, heated only in winter, at about 51°C at the source. It doesn't say whether the baths are free-flowing or recirculated.
Separate men's and women's indoor baths, open at any time, with no shared outdoor bath (a let-down for some 2023–2024 guests). Two private baths are free for one 40-minute slot per group, 7:00–23:00, by reservation: Hiten no Ne, an open-air hinoki tub for about three adults with its own lounge — 'like a room with an open-air bath', guests say — and the indoor Tenkudari. With only 12 rooms the baths are rarely crowded, though a few people make them feel full. Watch for: very hot water (March 2026), the men's bath being visible from a neighbouring house's upper floor (May 2025), and mosquitoes with windows open in summer (September 2025).
No policy found on the official site or Japanese booking sites — contact the inn. The two private baths can be booked free.
Local Warnings & Nuances
- 01
Check-in 15:00–19:00 (done in your room), check-out 10:00. Free parking for 30 cars; a shuttle bus runs from JR Toyosaka Station.
- 02
No lift: it's a two-storey wooden building with stairs, and only two rooms are on the ground floor. A wheelchair can be borrowed.
- 03
Cancellation: 30% from 7 days before, 50% from 3 days, 70% from 2 days and the day before, 100% on the day.
- 04
Children are welcome: primary-school children pay 70% of the adult rate; preschoolers aged 3 and over pay ¥7,700 with meals and futon or ¥4,400 meals only. Parents of toddlers praise the in-room meals, but meals can move to a private dining room when busy.
- 05
Some rooms are heated with kerosene heaters in winter and fittings are old; if comfort matters, pay for a better room or ask for the main building. A ¥150 bathing tax is added.
Before your stay
Souvenirs from Tsukioka and practical help for your trip.
Sources
The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on
More Consensus Reports
Area photoTsukiokaClassic
Tsukioka Onsen, Shibata, Niigata — in the middle of the small hot-spring town, a short walk from the public footbath, about an hour by direct bus from Niigata Station
9 sources
Tsukioka Onsen Mashu
月岡温泉 摩周
An adults-only Niigata inn where emerald-green sulphur water fills four garden rotenburo and dinner is a Niigata kaiseki of A5 wagyu, nodoguro and Koshihikari — but only the outdoor tubs use spring water, and the private bath costs extra
- Destination Dining
Kinosaki OnsenLuxury
Kinosaki Onsen, Toyooka, Hyogo
9 sources
Nishimuraya Honkan
西村屋本館
Kinosaki's grand old ryokan wins on service and crab — just know the private baths aren't onsen
- Historic Ryokan
- Destination Dining
Nishiyama OnsenClassic
Nishiyama Onsen, Hayakawa, Yamanashi — at the head of the Hayakawa valley below the Southern Alps, about 50 minutes' mountain driving from the Shimobe-Onsen-Hayakawa IC or one daily shuttle from JR Minobu Station
11 sources
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan
西山温泉 慶雲館
Guinness's 'world's oldest hotel', freshly renovated: unheated, undiluted free-flowing water from every bath and tap, 24-hour baths and a seafood-free mountain kaiseki — at the end of a long road lined with dump trucks
- Historic Ryokan
- Secluded Retreats
Area photoNoboribetsu OnsenPremium
Noboribetsu Onsen, Hokkaido — at the quiet upper end of the hot-spring town beside the Kusurisanbetsu river, across the road from its sister hotel Sekisuitei; about 15 minutes' gentle uphill walk from the bus terminal, about 20 minutes by bus from JR Noboribetsu Station, with the inn's own shuttle buses from Sapporo Station and New Chitose Airport
13 sources
Bourou Noguchi Noboribetsu
望楼NOGUCHI登別
An adults-only, all-suite 'Noboribetsu modern' inn where every room has its own big milky sulphur-spring bath and dinner is a Japanese-French kaiseki in a private dining room — superb for doing nothing, but the 20-year-old rooms are showing their age and the dinner divides opinion
- Private Onsen Rooms
- Design-Led
Area photoNoboribetsu OnsenClassic
Noboribetsu Onsen, Hokkaido — at the entrance to the hot-spring town beside the Kusurisanbetsu river, by the Tsutsujibashi bus stop, about 10 minutes by bus from JR Noboribetsu Station
9 sources
Noboribetsu Onsen Kashoutei Hanaya
登別温泉 花鐘亭はなや
A 21-room inn in a town of big hotels: milky free-flowing sulphur water, both meals served in your room and free draft beer and sake all stay — but the baths are tiny, the walls thin and the building showing its age
- Destination Dining
Area photoNoboribetsu OnsenPremium
Noboribetsu Onsen, Hokkaido — in the middle of the hot-spring town, joined to its sister hotel Park Hotel Gatei; the Park Hotel-mae bus stop is at the door and the Noboribetsu Onsen bus terminal about 10 minutes' walk away
9 sources
Ryotei Hanayura
旅亭 花ゆら
The quiet 37-room top tier of a Noboribetsu hotel group: 27 rooms with their own free-flowing milky sulphur bath and kaiseki in private dining rooms — but the building is dated, the room baths run hot and 2026 reviews call dinner service rushed at times
- Private Onsen Rooms
Photo credits: Footbath in Tsukioka Onsen, Shibata, Niigata · 663highland / CC BY 2.5 / Nishimuraya Honkan — the gate in snow, Kinosaki · Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan above the Hayakawa river, Yamanashi · Boltor / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Jigokudani (Hell Valley), Noboribetsu Onsen, Hokkaido · Calistemon / CC BY-SA 4.0
Tsukioka Onsen Hirosekan Hiten no Ne
Compare rates across trusted booking partners · Affiliate disclosure