KAI Hakone

Hoshino Resorts' Hakone-Yumoto inn, reopened in August 2025 full of yosegi marquetry: every room faces the river, there's a free teahouse and a fun craft class — but the shared bath is a single heated, chlorinated semi-open-air tub, and most rooms have only a shower

KAI Hakone sits on the old Tōkaidō road above the Sukumo river. It reopened in August 2025 after about a year's renovation, and all 34 rooms now face the river and Mt Yusaka. They are fitted with Hakone yosegi marquetry and art based on the gear of Edo-era travellers. Since reopening it has rated 4.4 across 52 reviews on one major Japanese booking site, with rooms at 4.7, dinner, service and cleanliness at 4.6, and the bath lowest at 4.2. Bloggers from 2025 and 2026 loved the new courtyard teahouse, which serves free tea and dango in the afternoon and herbal tea and shochu at night. They also loved the 40-minute yosegi 'zuku-biki' class, where you plane wood shavings and turn them into a photo frame; one couple called it the best activity at any KAI. Dinner is a 'Meiji beef hotpot' kaiseki that opens with a box of small dishes and ends with thick, miso-simmered beef and a black-bean tiramisu. Most guests rate it highly, but some find the marbled beef heavy. The weak point is the water. The official site lists a sodium chloride spring, and the booking site marks it as heated. A March 2026 guest reported water added, heating, recirculation and chlorine, and two 2026 reviewers complained of a strong chlorine smell. Each side has one roofed open-air hinoki tub and a sauna, with no indoor bath, so winter is chilly. Standard rooms have a shower only. Other complaints: lobby waits at check-in, and dinner staff hard to find when you want a refill.