Yuyado Toki no Niwa

A tatami-floored Kusatsu inn where all 64 rooms have an open-air onsen bath, plus 23 tubs shared with a sister inn — but the room baths are filled on demand rather than free-flowing, it's a 15–20-minute walk from the Yubatake, and 2025–2026 guests report an ageing building

Yuyado Toki no Niwa is a purpose-built inn from Kyoritsu Resort, the resort arm of the Dormy Inn group in a quiet villa district above Kusatsu — a 15–20-minute walk from the Yubatake, uphill on the way back, with free shuttles. All 64 rooms have their own open-air bath, and the corridors are laid with tatami, so you walk barefoot. The bath complex is shared with the 47-room sister inn Okyado Konoha on the same site: two bath halls fed by two acidic springs — Watanoyu (pH 2.1) in the big Tokinoyu hall with its open-air bath, bedrock bath and sauna, and Yukawanoyu (pH 2.3) in the smaller Konoyu — plus three free private open-air baths, 23 tubs in all. Japanese guests rate it 4.5 on Jalan across 3,472 reviews and 4.42 on Rakuten across 1,815, with baths scoring highest (4.6 and 4.65); Ikyu's 90 reviewers are cooler at 3.92, though they too give the baths 4.53. Bloggers who stayed in 2022–2024 and many 2026 reviewers praise the bath crawl, the private dining rooms, free night ramen and ice lollies, and attentive staff. Know before you book: the inn's FAQ says the room baths are not free-flowing — you fill them with a switch each time — and a 2022 blogger saw them labelled as diluted and heated. In 2025–2026, Jalan and Ikyu reviewers reported worn tatami, stains, mould on a room-bath ceiling, musty smells, thin walls, busy private baths, and dinners they found cold, rushed or forgettable. Two-meal rates for two start around ¥66,000–71,000 in the standard rooms and reach about ¥136,000 for the deluxe suite.