Yudanaka Onsen Aburaya Tosen

Yudanaka's modern alternative: top-floor mountain-view baths, a rooftop bar and sushi made at your private dining table — but only some rooms have been renovated, and the older ones show their age

Aburaya Tosen takes its name from its roots as a rapeseed-oil merchant (abura-ya) beside the Yomase River; the company dates from 1967, and the inn says it has been welcoming travellers for more than 60 years. Where Yudanaka's other well-known inn, Yorozuya, is all about one historic bathhouse, this is the modern, amenity-packed choice: a 32-room concrete building with two top-floor baths facing the Hokushin Gogaku peaks, a rooftop bar with dome seating, a private lounge for guests in rooms with open-air baths, and a craft-brewery complex next door. Guests rate it 4.7 across 1,647 reviews on one major site (dinner 4.8) and 4.52 across about 1,500 on another; most of the recent evidence comes from those booking-site reviews, backed by two blog stays in 2024. The praise centres on dinner in private dining rooms — the house 'Aburaya fondue', seasonal skewers you fry yourself in rapeseed oil, and sushi made at your table — and on warm, attentive service, with the okami greeting tables and waving departing cars out of sight. The four special rooms add an open-air bath, a private löyly sauna and a dining room where a chef fries tempura and makes sushi in front of you. The catches, from 2025–2026 reviews: rooms that haven't been renovated feel dated (one guest moved into an older room in August 2026 found a drain smell, stained chairs and peeling wallpaper), standard rooms have a shower booth rather than a tub, room baths can run very hot, and a few mention thin explanations, a crowded lounge and an unstaffed front desk. Two-meal stays start at about ¥22,000 per person; most reviewers paid over ¥30,000.