Ryokan Yoshidaya
旅館 吉田屋
Area photo — not the ryokan itself · Siebold-no-yu public bath, Ureshino Onsen, Saga · STA3816 / CC BY-SA 4.0
A 1925 riverside inn reworked in dark wood and lamplight, where most rooms have their own free-flowing Ureshino spring bath and the lounge feeds you all day — but it is all stairs, and 2026 reviews flag uneven dinner service
Yoshidaya was founded in 1925, according to a 2026 travelogue, and a 2023 blogger heard that the present 50-year-old building had been renovated rather than replaced; the inn marked its centenary by renovating its baths in 2024. Today it is a 19-room 'Japanese-modern hideaway' of earthen walls, indirect light, jazz, a fireplace and an irori hearth, with a detached villa annex, Worikara, semi-opened in July 2024. The draw is the water: Ureshino's slippery sodium bicarbonate-chloride spring, about 90°C at the source, fills two large baths (one with an open-air tub cut from a single 8-tonne rock), three private baths and the 100% free-flowing tubs in a dozen onsen rooms. Japanese guests rate it 4.33 across 1,282 reviews on Rakuten Travel, with baths highest (4.53) and location lowest (4.19), and 4.3 across 1,653 on Jalan, where service scores lowest (4.1). Travelogues from 2023, 2025 and 2026 praise the 'melting' onsen-tofu breakfast, the private dining rooms and Lounge 1925, where sweets, coffee, Ureshino tea, after-bath ice cream, evening sake and morning fruit are free. The 2026 complaints: stairs everywhere and no lift, hair in a large bath, discoloured lettuce at breakfast, a dinner served too fast with slow drinks and a pot left unlit, an autumn menu that repeated the previous month's, creaky floors and worn wood in an older room, and one 2026 travelogue writer who rated the stay merely 'so-so'. Two-meal stays ran about ¥17,000–30,000+ per person in 2026 reviews; a 2023 blogger paid ¥45,980 for two with a regional discount.
Room Selection Guide
What the guests who stayed here actually recommendRecommended
Premium onsen rooms — Suzukake (鈴懸), Yuzuriha (譲葉), Aoi (葵)
The largest rooms, each a Japanese room plus a bedroom with twin beds and a private bath of 100% free-flowing spring water: Suzukake (96㎡, third floor, black-granite tub), Yuzuriha (92㎡, high ceilings, black granite) and Aoi (78㎡, cypress tub, facing the cherry trees for spring viewing). A three-time guest in September 2026 called Suzukake's bath 'open and spacious — the best'. A family in Aoi in August 2026 loved the room but warned that the raised tatami area has stone steps on all four sides that are easy to miss, and the low table and floor chairs were awkward.
Yamabuki (山吹) and the superior onsen twins
Yamabuki (55㎡) is the only room with both an open-air cypress tub and an indoor stone bath, finished with Hizen Nao washi paper; a blogger writing in December 2024 found it dated but 'stylish and retro'. A September 2026 guest liked it but noted narrow beds, a creaky floor to the toilet and visible wear on the cypress tub. The six superior twins (23–37㎡, Icho, Omoto, Fuyo, Kobai, Shirakaba, Kaede) each have an indoor onsen tub — 2026 guests loved bathing whenever they liked — though a 2026 travelogue writer found them compact (about 12 tatami).
Request To Avoid
Standard twins without a bath — Kusu (楠), Take/Kiri, Momiji/Keyaki
At 20–27㎡ with twin beds, a washbasin and toilet but no bath, these are the cheapest rooms; you bathe in the large and private baths. Bloggers in 2023 and 2025 found them calm and big enough for two, with a large desk and an amenity bar in the corridor. But a 2026 guest found the air-conditioner noisy and a gap in the window screen that let a mosquito in, and a July 2026 review (room type unstated) said the room was so tight that an open suitcase left nowhere to step.
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Dining Deep Dive
Breakfast Consensus
4.4/5Ureshino onsen-yudōfu — local tofu simmered in spring water until it melts, finished as soy-milk rice porridge — selected four years running in Rakuten Travel's breakfast festival; a 2023 blogger found it refillable
Use Lounge 1925: free sweets, coffee and Ureshino tea from check-in, after-bath ice cream, local sake in the evening and fruit with yogurt in the morning. A Western brunch at the inn's kihaco café (from 11:00) can replace the Japanese breakfast. Staying guests get one free private-bath session (about 40–45 minutes) — book an early-morning slot at the front desk.
Dinner Insights
4.3/5A Japanese-Western kaiseki with Saga beef, Ariake Sea fish and Ureshino rice, changing monthly, served in the private dining rooms of Kokūzō or at the open kitchen of the inn's Toiro restaurant; plans add a Saga-beef loin steak or the house two-broth shabu-shabu of Ureshino tea and soy milk. A 2023 blogger praised matsutake soup, oyster tempura and hot dishes served properly hot, and 2026 guests praised the beef and an extra-order rolled omelette. The 2026 complaints: courses brought too fast, water and tea slow to arrive in tiny glasses, faltering explanations, a hot pot left unlit for 20 minutes, a short sake list with small pours, and an 'autumn' menu identical to the previous month's.
Onsen & Wellness Realities
A colourless sodium bicarbonate-chloride spring known as one of Japan's 'three great beauty baths', slippery on the skin and about 90°C at the source. The official site lists every in-room bath as 100% free-flowing natural spring water; a 2026 travelogue describes the inn's own source as free-flowing. Reviews differ on which feels silkier — one 2026 guest found the large bath silkier than the in-room tub, others the reverse.
Two large baths swap between men and women night and morning: Kumano-yu, with an open-air tub hollowed from a single 8-tonne rock, and Toyotama-yu, renovated in 2024 with four tubs, a semi-open-air bath, a ceramic tub and a sauna. Three bookable private baths (Anshin-yu, the biggest, in rock; earthen Oumi-yu; open-air Kifu-yu), a hot-stone bedrock bath (ganbanyoku) and a private Ureshino-tea steam room (¥4,950 for 40 minutes, ¥1,650 per extra person) complete the set. Day visitors also use the large baths, from 15:30 on weekdays.
No policy found on the official site or Japanese booking sites — contact the inn. Rooms with their own onsen bath avoid the issue.
Local Warnings & Nuances
- 01
Getting there: a 7-minute walk from Ureshino Bus Center (JR Kyushu bus from Takeo-Onsen Station, about 30 minutes; express bus from Fukuoka Airport, about 1 hour 20 minutes) or about 8 minutes by car from Ureshino IC. Rakuten Travel lists a shuttle and a 2023 blogger learned the inn offers station pickup — ask when booking. Free parking for 60 cars, a short walk from the entrance.
- 02
There is no lift and you must use stairs to reach rooms, baths and dining — several 2026 reviews, including families with older relatives, called it hard going. Not suitable for guests with limited mobility.
- 03
Check-in 15:00–19:00, check-out 10:00. Free cancellation until 8 days before; 30% from 7 days, rising to 100% on the day.
- 04
The whole property is non-smoking, indoors and out, with no smoking area. Strong-smelling food such as kimchi, and incense, may not be brought into rooms.
- 05
Two-meal plans in 2026 reviews ran from about ¥17,000 to over ¥30,000 per person including tax; plans with steak, spiny lobster or the villa annex cost more. Day-use bathing costs ¥1,650 on weekdays and ¥2,200 at weekends.
Before your stay
Souvenirs from Ureshino Onsen and practical help for your trip.
Ureshino Onsen souvenirs on Rakuten
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Sources
The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on
Featured in our guides
Side-by-side comparisons that include this ryokan.
Photo credits
- Wataya Bessou on the Ureshino river, Ureshino Onsen · STA3816 / CC BY-SA 4.0
More Consensus Reports
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Ureshino Onsen, Saga — alone in a wooded valley on the Shiiba river, about 10 minutes by car up a narrow mountain road from the spa town and 15 minutes from Ureshino-Onsen shinkansen station
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Ureshino's valley hideaway: 20 rooms strung along a mountain stream, each with its own hinoki bath of free-flowing spring water, a huge riverside open-air bath and fireflies in June — but the big baths are recirculated, the outdoor corridors are a maze, and the food is solid rather than special
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Ureshino Onsen, Saga — on the river in the old spa town, about 5 minutes by car from Ureshino-Onsen shinkansen station
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Ureshino's oldest inn, reinvented around records and books, with silky 'beauty' water and a breakfast of tofu melted in hot-spring water — great value in the renovated rooms, less so in the old washitsu
- Historic Ryokan
Area photoUreshino OnsenClassic
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12 sources
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嬉野温泉 大正屋
Ureshino's century-old town-centre inn: Junzo Yoshimura architecture around a cedar garden, spring water in every room's bath and the famous 'melting' onsen tofu at breakfast — but the shared baths are recirculated, the much-extended building is a maze of stairs, and the dining hall is big and busy
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9 sources
Wataya Bessou
和多屋別荘
A sprawling riverside resort reinventing itself with tea, books, a Pierre Hermé shop and workspaces around a 1977 Kisho Kurokawa tower — great water and dinners, but choose a renovated room
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Area photoJozankei OnsenClassic
Jozankei Onsen, Minami-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido — in the middle of the hot-spring town, right by the Yunomachi bus stop, about 50 minutes by car from central Sapporo or one hour on the inn's free shuttle from Ōdōri
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Jozankei Onsen Nukumori no Yado Furukawa
定山渓温泉 ぬくもりの宿 ふる川
Jozankei's best-loved big inn: handmade kaiseki, a breakfast buffet people rave about, free drinks in three lounges and staff who make a fuss over birthdays — but only a few rooms have their own onsen, the bathhouse is a walk away, and 2026 brought some upkeep and privacy lapses
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Jozankei OnsenClassic
Jozankei Onsen, Sapporo, Hokkaido — on a slope above the Toyohira river, about 26km and an hour from central Sapporo by the inn's free shuttle
9 sources
Jozankei Daiichi Hotel Suizantei
定山渓第一寶亭留 翠山亭
Every room has a bath of 100% spring water, the lounge pours free beer, sake and cheesecake from afternoon to midnight, and a free shuttle runs from central Sapporo — Hokkaido's easiest onsen escape, if you don't mind stairs and busy dinners
- Private Onsen Rooms
Photo credits: Siebold-no-yu public bath, Ureshino Onsen, Saga · STA3816 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wataya Bessou on the Ureshino river, Ureshino Onsen · STA3816 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Jozankei Onsen in winter, Sapporo · MIKI Yoshihito / CC BY 2.0 / Jozankei Dai-ichi Hotel Suizantei, Jozankei Onsen · 禁樹なずな / CC BY-SA 4.0
Ryokan Yoshidaya
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