Overview

Stay at the foot of Mount Gozaisho at Hotel Yunomoto, a 25-room hot spring ryokan in Yunoyama Onsen. The Gozaisho Ropeway is less than a minute away on foot, giving you one of the easiest starting points for exploring the mountain, its hiking routes, and its seasonal landscapes.

The scenery changes throughout the year. Spring brings mountain flowers, summer offers cooler air at higher elevations, autumn covers the Suzuka Mountains in colour, and winter creates frost-covered trees near the summit. After your time outdoors, you can return for natural hot spring bathing and a seasonal Japanese dinner prepared with ingredients from Mie.

The open-air baths are one of the main reasons to stay. From their elevated position, you can look across the surrounding mountains, the Ise Plain, and towards the Nagoya area. After dark, the distant city lights create a completely different view.

Accommodation

Hotel Yunomoto has 25 non-smoking rooms surrounded by the Suzuka Mountains. Traditional Japanese rooms make up most of the collection, while four upper-floor Japanese-Western rooms give you beds and wider views.

The standard Japanese room provides ten tatami mats, futon bedding, and an engawa-style sitting area beside the window. You can sit here with tea while looking towards the forested slopes around Mount Gozaisho.

Two compact eight-tatami rooms offer a simpler traditional layout. Their position close to the open-air bathing area makes them convenient when you plan to visit the hot spring several times during your stay.

Four Japanese-Western rooms occupy the top floor. Added in 2025, these rooms combine a Japanese sitting area with two semi-double beds. Their higher position gives you broader views, with the distant Nagoya cityscape visible from selected rooms when conditions are clear.

Every room has a washlet toilet and private washbasin. Eight rooms also contain a compact unit bath, but these baths use regular heated water rather than natural hot spring water. A room with a unit bath cannot always be selected in advance, so choose the shared or private hot spring baths for the full onsen experience.

Your room includes complimentary Wi-Fi, climate control, a television, refrigerator, kettle, tea set, towels, yukata, slippers, and essential toiletries. The entire building is non-smoking apart from a designated smoking space on the first floor.

Dining

Dinner follows a seasonal Japanese kaiseki format, combining seafood from Mie with mountain vegetables, local meat, and ingredients selected for the time of year. Each course arrives separately, allowing you to enjoy warm dishes as soon as they leave the kitchen.

Executive chef Seko received a Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare culinary award at the age of 28 and was later recognised as one of Mie’s master craftspeople. His cooking brings creative presentation to familiar Japanese flavours without allowing decoration to overpower the ingredients.

The Mie Kaiseki course brings together two of the prefecture’s best-known foods: Matsusaka beef and Ise spiny lobster. You can experience the richness of the beef alongside the sweetness and firm texture of the lobster in one complete seasonal meal.

Other dinner choices may feature A5 Japanese black beef served as shabu-shabu, Matsusaka beef loin steak, or Ise spiny lobster baked with a golden mayonnaise-based sauce. Venison tataki offers a lighter game dish with ginger and soy sauce.

Sōhei Nabe draws inspiration from the warrior monks associated with Yunoyama Onsen. This generous hot pot combines mountain ingredients in a warming broth and reflects one of the area’s best-known food traditions.

Your dining location depends on your confirmed plan. Some plans include dinner in your room, while others use a dining hall. Larger parties may dine in a private room or banquet space. Hotel Yunomoto does not operate a regular restaurant for evening walk-in dining.

Breakfast is served as a Japanese set meal in the third-floor hall. Local ingredients may include rice grown in northern Mie, eggs from the Suzuka area, local miso, and yoghurt made with milk from the foothills of the Suzuka Mountains.

Children’s meals are available. Food-allergy requests should be shared before arrival, and adjustments are made where reasonably possible. All dishes come from shared kitchen areas, so complete protection from cross-contact cannot be guaranteed.

Onsen and Wellness

Hotel Yunomoto draws natural water from Kousetsu-yu, its privately owned Yunoyama Onsen source. The spring is classified as a simple hot spring with a hypotonic, mildly alkaline, low-temperature character. It is also described as a radium mineral spring.

The water is clear and gentle against the skin. Traditional bathing indications include fatigue, neuralgia, muscle and joint discomfort, certain digestive concerns, and general recovery after travel or physical activity.

The spacious indoor baths look towards Mount Gozaisho through wide windows. Wood-patterned interiors and a large cypress tub create a warm bathing space where you can stretch out after hiking, sightseeing, or travelling.

The elevated open-air baths face the Suzuka Mountains and the distant Nagoya area. During daylight hours, you can look across the mountain landscape and Ise Plain. In the evening, the view changes to lights scattered across the cities below.

The indoor baths normally open from 15:00 until midnight and again from 5:00 until 9:30. The open-air baths normally follow the same evening schedule and reopen from 6:00 until 9:30. Hours may change for cleaning or maintenance.

Two private baths give you a more personal bathing experience. Ryusei is an outdoor bath suited to couples and families, with space to enjoy the mountain air away from the shared bathing areas.

Ryokuzan is an indoor private bath with a microbubble system. The fine bubbles create a soft sensation in the water, and the enclosed design works particularly well when you are bathing with younger children.

Both private baths sit on higher ground and require you to use stairs. Each session lasts approximately 45 minutes. Reservations are accepted at the front desk after arrival and cannot be completed in advance. Times are allocated in order of request, so your preferred session may not always be available.

Guests with Tattoos

If you have visible tattoos, you cannot use the shared indoor baths or open-air baths.

Reserve Ryusei or Ryokuzan for private bathing instead. Both baths give you a self-contained space where you can enjoy the natural spring without entering the communal bathing areas. Reservations are accepted after check-in and depend on same-day availability.

Facilities

The lobby and lounge give you space to sit before check-in or relax after returning from Mount Gozaisho. A coffee corner is also available when you want a warm drink between bathing and sightseeing.

The shop carries local foods, Mie souvenirs, drinks, and useful travel items. Vending machines provide additional refreshments throughout the day.

You can reserve the table-tennis area for an easy evening activity. Massage services and morning calls can also be arranged during your stay.

Banquet halls, meeting rooms, and a karaoke lounge support celebrations, organised meals, and group gatherings. An elevator connects the main floors, although several parts of the property, including the private baths, require stairs.

Complimentary Wi-Fi is available in every room. On-site parking and a station shuttle are also available, while smoking is limited to the designated first-floor space. A coin laundry is not provided.

Activities

Walk less than a minute to the Gozaisho Ropeway and travel towards the summit of Mount Gozaisho. The journey takes around 12 minutes and reveals views of the mountain slopes, Ise Bay, and the Chita Peninsula when the sky is clear.

Mount Gozaisho rises to 1,212 metres and offers a different landscape in every season. You can enjoy flowers in spring, cooler highland walks in summer, autumn foliage, and frost-covered trees during winter. A small ski area also operates near the summit when snow conditions allow.

Several hiking routes begin near the property. The Ura trailhead is around three minutes away on foot, while the Naka trailhead takes around 30 minutes to reach. Selected trekking plans include transport to the Naka trailhead when road and seasonal conditions permit.

Forest Adventure Yunoyama offers suspended bridges, ropes, and zip lines among the trees. Age, height, clothing, and weather restrictions apply, so reserve ahead when you plan to take part.

Aquaignis combines bathing, dining, cafés, and local food in a lowland setting below Yunoyama Onsen. It offers a contrasting experience after time in the mountains.

The annual Sōhei Festival celebrates Yunoyama’s warrior-monk history with fire, performances, and a large burning torch procession. The main event area is beside Hotel Yunomoto, although dates and arrangements change each year.

Additional Features

Check-in begins at 15:00, and check-out is by 10:00. Contact the ryokan when you expect to arrive later than the time stated in your confirmed plan.

A complimentary shuttle connects Kintetsu Yunoyama-Onsen Station with the ryokan. Advance contact is required, and the drive normally takes around eight minutes.

Complimentary parking is available when you arrive by car. During periods of snow or ice, a temporary lower parking area may operate with transport to the ryokan.

You can leave luggage before check-in or after check-out. Complimentary Wi-Fi is available in every room, and English assistance is available.

The Gozaisho Ropeway, local bus stops, and mountain walking routes are all close by, allowing you to explore the area without driving once you arrive.