OKU
Yu, Shin'onsen-chō, Mikata District, northern Hyōgo — a castle-like building two minutes' walk from the Yumura Onsen bus stop and a few minutes from the steaming Arayu spring; about 25 minutes by town bus from JR Hamasaka Station, about 3 hours by express bus from Osaka-Umeda, and about 45 minutes by car from Yōka-Hyōnosen IC

Yumura Onsen Asanoya

湯村温泉 朝野家

4.4/5Japanese Guest ConsensusAggregated from 10 Japanese guest blogs and stay reportsSources checked Oct 13, 2026

Area photo — not the ryokan itself · The Arayu spring at Yumura Onsen, Hyogo · KishujiRapid / CC BY-SA 4.0

Japanese Guest Consensus

A big, old-school Yumura inn loved for handmade monthly kaiseki in private dining rooms, Tajima beef and Hamasaka crab, and 98°C spring water that runs even from the washbasin taps. The catch: the large baths are only partly free-flowing, chlorinated and two floors underground, and the building shows its age

Asanoya is one of the largest inns in Yumura Onsen, the hot-spring town made famous by the TV drama Yumechiyo Nikki. It has 68 rooms, though the inn says it now runs only about half of them, and about 100 staff. Its four private sources gush out at 98.4°C, about 420–430 L/min. Every room's bath and washbasin taps run on spring water, and 15 rooms have their own open-air onsen tub. Japanese guests rate it 4.5 across 1,552 Jalan reviews (dinner and bath 4.6), 4.55 across 1,228 on Rakuten Travel and 4.61 across 210 on Ikyu (food and service 4.68, baths 4.76). Five independent stay write-ups from 2022 to 2025 agree with the 2026 reviews: the food is the reason to come. Monthly kaiseki is made in-house from a fresh morning dashi, with no additives, and served in a private dining room with table seating. Highlights include Tajima beef sukiyaki, crab bought by the head chef at Hamasaka port, and dashi-maki omelette cooked in front of you at breakfast. Old-fashioned service also gets a lot of praise: welcome matcha, the okami visiting every table, and the whole team waving cars off. The catches are consistent too. The inn says the large baths combine free-flowing water with recirculation and filtration, and chlorinate it under prefectural rules, so purists go for the one free-flowing tub outdoors or the in-room taps. The baths are two floors below ground, reached by stairs. Fittings feel dated, and in 2026 some guests noticed small cut-backs. Two-meal plans reviewed on Jalan in July–October 2026 cost about ¥15,000–29,000 per person, and crab and premium-beef plans cost over ¥30,000.

Overall Score4.4/5
Cuisine
4.7
Onsen Privacy
3.8
Tranquility
4.1
Hospitality
4.6

Room Selection Guide

Recommended

  • Rooms with an open-air onsen bath (露天風呂付客室), e.g. the Western-style Sango and Bengara (queen bed), the two-room Hanaasagi and Shion (12 + 4.5 tatami), or the special rooms Enji, Ruri and the 22-tatami Konruri

    The inn's FAQ lists 15 rooms with their own open-air tub, all filled from its own sources. 2026 Ikyu reviewers in these rooms were among the happiest. A guest in Sango/Bengara at the end of September gave full marks and thanked staff for adjusting the water temperature. In late August, a family in a two-room open-air suite went back for one last soak before leaving. One September guest in a Japanese-Western open-air room heard what sounded like a boiler at night. Another in early October had no usable Wi-Fi. All rooms with beds are non-smoking.

  • Standard Japanese rooms, 12 or 12.5 tatami (和室12畳/12.5畳), or the two-room 12.5 + 6 tatami type with two beds (和室2間)

    The best value. Every standard room is 10 tatami or more, and although the bath is only a unit bath, the tap runs straight from the source. A guest in a December 2024 blog wrote that you can let it overflow or add cold water as you like, and that this water felt better than most of the large-bath tubs. They found the 12-tatami room spacious, with a broad window-side engawa, and their meals were served in the room next door. 2026 Jalan reviewers on the cheapest two-meal plans (¥15,000–19,000 per person) praised clean, bright rooms. One was quietly upgraded to a larger room. The two-room type with beds suits older guests: one 2026 reviewer was glad of the beds for their elderly parent.

Request To Avoid

  • Yukomori (湯籠里, opened 2023) Deluxe Twin 'Akane', and anyone sensitive to windowless rooms

    Yukomori is the inn's 'grown-up hideaway' wing: five rooms with an open-air bath and their own dining room next door. The Deluxe Twin, though, has no window. A guest who stayed in March 2025 wrote that it felt closed-in and advised picking a room with a window next time. A July 2023 guest liked the new hinoki tub but found the room had a toilet and no washbasin, so they had to walk to the powder room to wash their hands. An August 2026 repeat guest (in a twin room) also mentioned a windowless, oppressive room and two steps inside it. Ask which Yukomori room you're getting; the Suite (3 rooms) and Executive (1 room) types pair a twin bedroom with a tatami room.

Know which room you want?

Check live rates and availability for Yumura Onsen Asanoya.

We may earn a commission if you book through these links, at no extra cost to you. Affiliate disclosure

Dining Deep Dive

Breakfast Consensus

4.4/5

A Japanese set breakfast in the same private dining room, with in-house soy-milk tofu (often a soy-milk hotpot that sets into tofu at the table), local-vegetable salad, grilled fish and a dashi-maki omelette made by the kitchen. A July 2023 blogger watched the head chef cook the omelette in front of them. Rated 4.5 on Jalan. One March 2025 guest found the portions small, but most reviewers call it generous. Breakfast runs 7:30–9:00, last order 8:30.

Do what a December 2024 blogger did: buy a tube of condensed milk at the front desk (staff bag it in a net with a handle), drop it in the 98°C Arayu spring before bed, and fish it out before breakfast as soft caramel to pour on your yoghurt. Arayu is a few minutes' walk away, and you can also boil eggs or make a sandwich there. Welcome matcha and sweets are served only until 17:00, so arrive earlier if you want them (one September 2026 guest arriving at 17:00 missed out). The shop closes at 18:00.

Dinner Insights

4.7/5

Kaiseki changes monthly and is almost entirely handmade. The kitchen makes a fresh first dashi every morning, uses no additives, and finishes some dishes at your table. Dinner is served in a private room with table seating, separate from your bedroom. The cheapest 'hiroma' plans eat in a shared hall instead. Mains depend on the plan: Tajima beef sukiyaki, Kasumi red snow crab (autumn–spring), and in winter Matsuba crab that the head chef buys at the Hamasaka port auction. Extras include Tajima beef steak from ¥6,600 per 100g, abalone from ¥3,300 and nodoguro rockfish at ¥3,300; order crab and abalone at least three days ahead. A December 2024 blogger loved the sukiyaki course with a tagged boiled crab added. A March 2025 guest called the grilled crab plump and sweet, though staff first brought the wrong glasses for wine. A July 2023 guest felt the sukiyaki beef was a step below a Tajima-beef lunch in town. 2026 notes: the fried course arrived when one diner was already full, a guest disliked fatty local pork, and another asked for a vegetable-and-seafood-only course. Dinner scores 4.6 on Jalan. Official pages give dinner as 17:30 or 18:00 to 21:00, with the last start between 18:30 and 19:00.

Onsen & Wellness Realities

Water Type

Sodium bicarbonate–chloride–sulphate spring, weakly alkaline, colourless and odourless. It is sold as a 'beauty bath' and is also drinkable. The inn owns four natural sources, flowing at 98.4°C and 420–430 L/min, and cools the water in four tanks while using its heat for heating and cooling the building. The taps in every room's bath and washbasin run on spring water. The inn is frank in its FAQ: water is added after cleaning or when it is too hot. The large indoor and outdoor baths mix free-flowing water with recirculation and filtration, and are chlorinated under Hyōgo rules. A December 2024 blogger found only one outdoor tub (up a short flight of steps) running free-flow and said it felt very different. An August 2026 reviewer also complained that the open-air bath is recirculated.

Privacy & Atmosphere

Two bath complexes, Hikoboshi and Orihime, each with a large hinoki-scented indoor bath, a rock open-air bath under a thatched roof with a big waterwheel, and a 50–60°C low-temperature geothermal sauna called Yumechiyo-dō. They swap between men and women each day. Hours are 15:00–24:00 and 5:30–9:30. Recent guests describe the open-air baths as roomy and grand. One March 2025 guest had the large bath to themselves, but one 2026 guest found the outdoor stairs a little slippery. The baths are on B2, and the lift only goes to B1, so there are 19 steps down. A September 2026 guest said this would be too hard for their mother. The private in-room tubs (15 rooms with open-air baths, unit baths elsewhere) are the best option for privacy.

Tattoo Policy

No policy found — contact the inn.

Local Warnings & Nuances

  1. 01

    Check-in is 15:00 and check-out 10:00. The front door is locked from midnight to 5:00 (a night guard will let you in). If you drive, stop at the entrance and staff will park your car in the inn's separate, uncovered lot. EV charging is available for two cars if you ask ahead. In winter you need snow tyres or chains.

  2. 02

    Public transport is sparse. There is no inn shuttle: take the 'Yumetsubame' town bus from JR Hamasaka Station (about 25 minutes) or the Zentan bus from Yōka Station (about 1 hour 15 minutes) or Osaka-Umeda (about 3–3.5 hours), then walk two minutes. A 2022 blogger found no taxis at the station. On 30 September 2026 the inn warned of daytime maintenance closures on the JR San'in and Bantan lines, so check trains before you travel.

  3. 03

    The inn is not barrier-free: there is a 15cm step into the rooms, 19 stairs from B1 to the large baths and 5 more to the open-air bath, and no accessible public toilets. Wheelchairs and carts can be borrowed if you ask when booking.

  4. 04

    Some old-style service has been trimmed. In 2026 the inn said guests now carry their own luggage to the room, and the welcome matcha ends at 17:00. Reviewers noted a basic toothbrush, a missing paper crane in the car, and dated fittings in older wings. On the plus side, the okami, the head chef and staff still see guests off, and a March 2025 blogger called such a careful send-off rare these days.

  5. 05

    Staff speak only basic English, according to the inn, and keep a simple translation device. Dogs are welcome in three dedicated 15-tatami rooms (mainly small dogs around 5kg). Children's meals and yukata are available, and solo stays are accepted except on peak days. Room-only plans also exist, so check that your plan includes the private-room dinner rather than the shared-hall option.

Sources

The real blog posts and stay reports this article draws on

Featured in our guides

Side-by-side comparisons that include this ryokan.

More Consensus Reports

Gero Onsen and the Hida River, Gifu
Area photo

Gero OnsenClassic

Yunoshima, Gero, Gifu — on the Hida River beside the JR Takayama Line bridge, about 15 minutes' walk from Gero Station (free shuttle) and about 10 minutes on foot from the centre of the onsen town

4.0/5

10 sources

Gero Onsen Bosenkan

下呂温泉 望川館

A friendly, family-minded Gero inn founded in 1818, with a 1,100-tsubo garden, a big riverside open-air bath, Hida beef hoba-miso dinners in private rooms and trains rumbling over the bridge outside — but the building is old, the baths are partly recirculated and down a steep flight of stairs

  • Historic Ryokan
Read the Consensus
Gero Onsen and the Hida River, Gifu
Area photo

Gero OnsenClassic

Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 120-room inn on the Hida river in the middle of the hot-spring town, about seven minutes' walk from JR Gero Station

4.0/5

11 sources

Gero Onsen Ogawaya

下呂温泉 小川屋

Gero's big bath-hopping inn: a 100-tatami 'tatami bath', five shared baths, nine private ones and a menu of Hida-beef dinners in the middle of town — but it's a 120-room maze, the private baths cost extra, and 2026 reviews complain of queues and uneven service

Read the Consensus
Gero Onsen and the Hida River, Gifu
Area photo

Gero OnsenClassic

Gero Onsen, Gifu — a 264-room ryokan on the Hida river, three minutes' walk from JR Gero Station

4.0/5

9 sources

Gero Onsen Suimeikan

下呂温泉 水明館

Gero's grand ryokan since 1932: four wings, three big baths of silky alkaline water and Hida beef everywhere — choose the Rinsenkaku wing for onsen in your room, and expect crowds and tired rooms elsewhere

  • Historic Ryokan
Read the Consensus
Yunoshimakan

Gero OnsenClassic

Gero Onsen, Gifu — on the wooded hillside above the town, with a free shuttle from JR Gero Station

4.5/5

13 sources

Yunoshimakan

下呂温泉 湯之島館

A 1931 wooden resort inn that hosted two emperors — red-carpeted corridors, a Showa-era bar and Hida beef at 4.9 — but also a maze of stairs and a persistent musty smell

  • Historic Ryokan
Read the Consensus
Ginzan Onsen Fujiya

Ginzan OnsenPremium

Ginzan Onsen, Obanazawa, Yamagata

4.2/5

9 sources

Ginzan Onsen Fujiya

銀山温泉 藤屋

Kengo Kuma's eight-room inn in the heart of Ginzan — five private onsen baths, and a design that sometimes forgets practicality

  • Design-Led
Read the Consensus
Notoya Ryokan

Ginzan OnsenClassic

Ginzan Onsen, Obanazawa, Yamagata — the towered wooden inn at the heart of the riverside street

4.6/5

12 sources

Notoya Ryokan

銀山温泉 能登屋旅館

The towered Taisho-era inn everyone photographs in Ginzan — warm service, a cave bath and a waterfall-view bath, but book a river-side room and expect an audience

  • Historic Ryokan
Read the Consensus

Photo credits: Gero Onsen and the Hida River, Gifu · Asturio Cantabrio / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Yunoshimakan — the registered-heritage main building, Gero · 大野 一将 / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Ginzan Onsen Fujiya — the facade, Ginzan Onsen · bryan... / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Notoya Ryokan in the snow, Ginzan Onsen · さかおり / CC BY-SA 4.0