Tsunagi Onsen Shikitei

A small, warmly run sukiya-style inn outside Morioka, rated 4.6 by over 500 Japanese guests for its staff and monthly Iwate kaiseki — the free-flowing sulphur water is best in the few rooms with their own open-air bath, since the shared baths are small, recirculated and never swap

Shikitei is a 22-room sukiya-style inn at the back of Tsunagi Onsen, a spring that legend says Minamoto no Yoshiie found about 900 years ago, naming it after the stone where a horse was tied — the stone still stands nearby. The water is a soft, alkaline simple sulphur spring (pH 9.1, 65.3°C), sold as a 'skin-beautifying' bath. Japanese guests rate the inn 4.6 across 531 reviews on one major site (service 4.8, dinner 4.7, rooms only 4.2) and 4.61 across 529 on another. They praise attentive, friendly staff and an okami who sees every guest off, a monthly kaiseki built on Sanriku seafood and Iwate beef (a 2023 blogger singled out the signature onsen-steamed Iwate beef), fresh flowers in the corridors, and unusually thorough care for babies and toddlers. The real draw is the handful of rooms with a free-flowing open-air bath; the shared baths, one per gender with an outdoor tub, are listed by a booking site as recirculated and filtered, and guests find them small. Complaints, dated: a December 2023 blogger sent back sashimi as not fresh and found the special room's bath screened and dim; an August 2024 blogger found its Western bedroom far smaller than the photos; in 2026 reviewers mention ageing washbasins and toilets, a room facing a wall, thin towels, dirty windows, a cramped lounge and early 10:00 check-out, and one March 2026 guest found staff listless and dishes cleared too fast. Two-meal stays run about ¥18,000–30,000+ per person.