Yufuin Tamanoyu

Sixteen cottages in a woodland garden, each with its own free-flowing hinoki bath, and a breakfast soup people call Japan's best — but dinner splits opinion

Tamanoyu began in 1953 as a retreat for a Zen temple and is one of the inns that made Yufuin famous. Its sixteen rooms are cottages and small wings scattered through a deliberately wild woodland garden, linked by roofed paths, and every one has a wooden bath filled with free-flowing spring water — 'available 24 hours, which is wonderful', as one guest put it. On Japan's leading luxury booking site it averages 4.73 across 41 reviews, with baths and service at 4.80. The quieter pleasures are what regulars love: the lounge with its fireplace and gramophone, the tea room and bar named after the writer C.W. Nicol, and above all the Western breakfast, whose cress and vegetable soup and Yufuin ham one blogger called the best breakfast in Japan. Food is also where the complaints are. Dinner is unshowy country cooking built around a hotpot or charcoal-grilled beef you choose in advance, and it scores lowest (4.51); one 2023 family waited 30 minutes for their hotpot in a three-hour dinner without an apology, a 2026 guest found it 'far too meagre' for the price, and others mention casual service, an ageing building and firm Airweave beds. Expect around ¥77,500 for two with breakfast only.