• The best time to visit a hot spring ryokan is during cooler weather - late fall, winter, early spring - so you can be outside and enjoy the hot temperature in the cool/cold air. Snow falling in an outdoor hot spring is an experience not to be missed.

• The worst time to visit a hot spring ryokan is on  weekends. This is when Japanese visit hot springs and most places are fully booked. Also, avoid the holiday seasons of "Obon" (early, mid- August), "Oshogatsu" (late December, early January), "Golden Week" (late April, early May) because prices double and triple and reservations are impossible to make. Other busy seasons are cherry blossom season (late April) and autumn leaf season (November).

• Some popular hot spring ryokan areas:
  Arima Onsen near Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture
  Gunma Prefecture
  Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture
  Hokkaido (for example, Noboribetsu Onsen, Shikotsu-Toya National Park, Daisetsuzan National Park and Sounkyo Onsen)
  Kurokawa Onsen, Kumamoto Prefecture
  Nagano Prefecture
  Beppu and Yufuin, Oita Prefecture
  Shizuoka Prefecture
  Tochigi Prefecture (for example, Kinugawa Onsen, Nasu, Shiobara Onsen, Yumoto Onsen)

• Some of the most expensive and luxurious hot spring ryokans areas:
  Arima Onsen near Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture
  Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture
  Shizuoka Prefecture

Unique and Notable Hot Spring Ryokans

Asaba Ryokan, Shizuoka Prefecture - outdoor Japanese Noh theater

Daiichi Takimotokan, Noboribetsu Onsen, Hokkaido - over 30 hot spring baths

Hotel Konanso, near Mt Fuji - fantastic view of Mt Fuji from the hot spring baths

Hotel Nakanoshima, Wakayama Prefecture - hot spring ryokan on its own island

Korakukan, Jigokudani Yaen Koen, Nagano Prefecture - bathe with the snow monkeys!
(see the live web cam photos of the monkeys too)

Kurokawa Onsen Ryokans, Kumamoto Prefecture - many mixed (women and men) hot spring baths

Matsuzakaya Honten, Hakone, Kanagawa Prefecture
- first opened for business in 1662

Osenkaku, Gunma Prefecture - a ryokan with beautiful hot springs beside a river

Shirakabeso, Shizuoka Prefecture - One hot spring bath is carved from a 53 ton rock, and the another is carved out of a 1,200 year old rosewood tree trunk

Taketoritei, Arima Onsen near Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture - voted #37 top hot spring ryokan in Japan

• Introduction to Hot Springs
• Hot Spring Ryokans
• The Joys of Japanese Hot Springs
• A Hot Spring Experience
• Free and other Hot Springs of Japan
• Onsen in Eastern Japan
• How to put on a Japanese "Yukata" (Robe)