Hirugami Onsen Yurui no Yado Keizan

A 47-room hillside inn in Hirugami where dinner is grilled over charcoal at your own irori hearth in a private room, with a big rock open-air bath and baby-friendly rooms — but the water is recirculated, much of the building is ageing and 2026 reviews describe uneven, trainee-heavy service

'Yurui' is southern Shinshū dialect for 'sit by the hearth and stay a while', and the hearth is the point at Keizan, a 47-room inn on the rise above the Achi River in Hirugami Onsen. Its signature dinner is cooked over charcoal at your own irori in a private dining room — Shinshū beef, iwana char, local vegetables, oyaki and gohei-mochi, finished with soba suiton — and there's a regional kaiseki for those who'd rather not grill. Every room is on the fourth floor or higher, looking over the spa town, and the shared baths centre on a large rock garden open-air bath filled with Hirugami's slippery pH 9.7 water, which Jalan lists as heated and recirculated. The inn is certified 'Welcome Baby', so expect families. Japanese guests rate it 4.39 across 2,843 reviews on Rakuten Travel (service 4.54, baths 4.49) and 4.4 across 2,170 on Jalan; Ikyu's 35 reviews average 4.11. Bloggers who stayed between 2022 and 2025 loved the water and the sheer size of the irori spread, though a returning blogger in February 2024 found the food homely rather than special. In 2026, reviewers praise warm, attentive staff, private rooms for both meals, the soy-milk hotpot at breakfast and the easy pairing with the Heavens Sonohara stargazing tour. The 2026 complaints: creaking tatami, loud air conditioners and an ageing building outside the renovated 'Yuu' and 'Zen' rooms; staff in training who couldn't answer questions or explain the dishes, with no printed menu; courses arriving out of order or cold; seasoning some found too salty or too sweet; a lukewarm mist sauna; and stink bugs in October. Two-meal plans start at ¥18,700 per person on the official site, and most 2026 reviewers paid ¥20,000–30,000 or more per person.