Honke Bankyu

Irori-grilled mountain dinners across a swaying vine bridge, riverside baths and 360 years of Heike-refugee lore — loved for the food, with thin walls and lots of steps

Honke Bankyu traces itself to 1666 and to a family descended from Heike warriors who hid in this valley after their defeat — the name Ban (伴) is said to be a disguised form of Taira (平). Today it is a riverside inn of about two dozen rooms, and dinner is the event: after gathering at the front desk, guests cross a swaying vine bridge (kazura-bashi) to private irori rooms for venison skewers, salt-grilled iwana, carp and trout sashimi and local beef. Japanese guests rate the food highest — 4.8 for dinner and breakfast across 943 reviews on one major booking site, where the inn averages 4.5 — and several call the riverside open-air bath the best they've been in. Three rooms have their own riverside open-air bath fed from the spring and five have semi-open-air baths. The criticisms are consistent, and the inn itself acknowledges some: you can hear corridors and neighbours, there is no lift and plenty of steps, and on one site facilities and cleanliness score below 3.9. Guests also disagree about how 'pure' the spring water is, and some found the baths scalding. Rates start around ¥25,500 per person with two meals.