Miyamaso Takamiya

A 300-year-old inn with its own fiercely acidic sulphur springs and some of Zao's best-loved cooking — in an old, maze-like building with no lift

Takamiya has been in Zao Onsen since 1716 and hosted members of the imperial family in the 1940s and 50s, including the future emperor, who stayed four days. It owns three springs of strongly acidic, sulphurous water — around pH 1.3 to 2.0 depending on the source — poured into a series of wooden and stone baths, and Japanese guests love both the water ('hot and powerful') and the food: it averages 4.7 across 417 reviews on one major booking site, with dinner at 4.9 and breakfast at 4.8. Dinner centres on Zao beef, often as a sukiyaki-shabu-shabu hotpot, with abalone and local pork; breakfast brings rice cooked in a clay pot to your timing and imoni stew. The criticism is almost all about the building: it is over a century old, reached by about 20 stone steps with no car access to the door, has no lift, creaks, and is 'like a maze' — several guests got lost on the way to the baths. The baths are small with no view and get crowded on busy nights, some find the water too hot or stinging, and older rooms show their age. Children aged 12 and under are not accepted. Standard plans run about ¥22,000–26,000 per person with two meals.