Kanazawa Yuwaku Onsen Kokarian

Four suites, each with its own onsen bath, in a quiet hot-spring village outside Kanazawa — known for its creative Hokuriku kaiseki, beef shabu-shabu breakfast, free drinks and 22:00 curry udon; the water is recirculated, the baths have little view, and there's no shared bath or lift

Kokarian opened in June 2018 in Yuwaku Onsen, a small hot-spring village in the hills 40 minutes from Kanazawa, and has since been listed in the 2021 Michelin Guide Hokuriku. (The Kokarian in Inami, Toyama, shares the name but is a separate inn.) There are just four non-smoking suites of 48–70㎡: two on the ground floor with an open-air onsen bath facing the garden, and two upstairs with a semi-open-air one. There's no shared bath, shop or vending machine. Instead, a lobby fridge of free beer, chūhai, juice and ice cream, plus nuts and Kaga bōcha tea in the room, make it an inn you settle into for the night. Japanese guests rate it 4.8 across 50 reviews on one major site (baths 4.9) and 4.67 across 43 on another. Bloggers who stayed in 2023, 2024 and January 2025 all single out the food: a kaiseki that changes every two months, served in private dining rooms on Kutani porcelain and Yamanaka lacquer, ending with donabe rice (leftovers come back as rice balls), a 22:00 curry udon on request, and a breakfast with beef shabu-shabu. Know before you book: the spring is low-temperature and the inn lists it as diluted, heated and recirculated, so not free-flowing. The baths look onto walls or garden rather than views, small insects get into the ground-floor baths in summer, and upstairs rooms are reached by stairs only. An April 2026 guest reported lukewarm white shrimp, cold tempura, an unattended front desk and an unexpected charge for a condiment, and one February 2026 guest found it 'not for everyone'. Two-meal rates start around ¥71,500 for two, rising to about ¥150,000 for the winter crab plans.