Yamanaka Onsen Yubatake no Yado Hanatsubaki

A 48-room value inn at the far end of Yamanaka Onsen, built around the Yubatake — a terrace of mixed-bathing riverside tubs worn with bathing robes — but 2025–2026 guests found the tubs too cool or too hot, part of it shut for works, and 65 steps to climb

Hanatsubaki is a 48-room inn at the far end of Yamanaka Onsen beside the Shinsenkyō gorge, and its reason for being is the Yubatake: fifteen small tubs fed by the inn's own spring and stepped down the riverbank like terraced fields, 65 steps below the lobby. Everyone wears the inn's bathing robes, so couples, families and friends bathe together. Bloggers who stayed in Golden Week 2022 and in May 2026 had it to themselves and loved the river sound; another, walking in from Fukui in July 2026, enjoyed the empty indoor bath, the kaiseki and a 12.5-tatami room that felt almost too big for one. Japanese guests rate it 4.0 on two major sites — 156 reviews on one, 146 on the other — with dinner (4.17–4.2) and breakfast (4.11–4.3) scoring best and the baths lowest (3.6–3.92). The praise is consistent: big, renovated rooms with futons already laid, freshly fried tempura and hōba-yaki at dinners served in a dining hall rather than a buffet, and kind staff who'll drive you into town. The complaints centre on the Yubatake itself. In December 2025 the hottest tub was below body temperature while the 'cold' one was scalding, the lift down to it was closed and part of it was under construction; in summer 2026 the women-only section was still closed with no reopening date. Others mention ageing equipment, insects and stink bugs in the hinoki-bath rooms, hair left in a room and smoke drifting from the entrance. The inn's standard two-meal plan starts at ¥17,710 per person (¥24,310 with a hinoki bath); reviewers paid ¥13,000–28,000.