Overview

Kaiseki Ryoan Ashikari gives you a private hot spring stay in the wooded hills of Yugawara, Kanagawa Prefecture. The ryokan stands within spacious garden grounds, with views toward the outer mountains of Hakone and easy access to the historic Yugawara Onsen area.

Ashikari has 17 rooms, and every room includes a private open-air bath filled with source-flowing Yugawara Onsen water. This means you can bathe whenever you like, surrounded by trees, garden scenery, or mountain views, without sharing your bathing space.

Seasonal kaiseki dining forms another central part of your stay. Fresh seafood, regional vegetables, carefully selected tableware, and attentive presentation turn dinner into a slow experience shaped by the time of year. Ashikari works especially well for a romantic break, anniversary, family celebration, or quiet trip focused on food and hot spring bathing.

Accommodation

All 17 rooms are non-smoking and include a private open-air bath supplied directly from the Yugawara hot spring source. Most rooms combine tatami areas with twin beds, separate living spaces, wide windows, and wooden decks. Room sizes range from 45 to 100 square metres.

Katsuragi and Sagamiji are the largest suites at 100 square metres. Each includes twin beds, a Japanese-Western living space, a large garden-facing deck, and one of the ryokan’s most spacious private open-air baths. These rooms accommodate up to six people.

Awayuki, Kumoi, and Hagi offer 80 square metres. They combine twin beds, tatami, comfortable seating, and large decks. Hagi looks toward the Hakone mountain ridge and a mature cherry tree, while Awayuki and Kumoi face the illuminated garden.

Kaguyama and Takamado provide 70 square metres, twin beds, a Japanese-style living area, and private open-air baths made with natural stone. Kokonoe is a detached 70-square-metre room surrounded by trees, while Hatsuse gives you a detached 60-square-metre retreat with strong privacy.

The 60-square-metre standard rooms include Yagumo, Asuka, Sawarabi, and Yamabiko. Each has twin beds, a living area, a garden-facing deck, and a source-flowing open-air bath. Tamaginu and Izayoi offer a more compact 45-square-metre Western layout for two, while Ohka gives you 50 square metres and mountain views.

Miyako is the only fully Japanese-style room. It includes ten tatami mats, a wide veranda, futon bedding, a garden deck, and a private source-flowing bath. It accommodates up to three people.

The ryokan spreads across a natural hillside. Depending on your room, you may need to use a total of around 40 steps when travelling between your accommodation, the dining area, and the shared baths. Choose your room carefully when stairs may be difficult for you.

Dining

Ashikari serves seasonal kaiseki cuisine built around Japan’s traditional calendar. The menu changes throughout the year, reflecting smaller seasonal transitions rather than only spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Seafood comes from areas such as Manazuru Port, Fukuura Port, and Sagami Bay. The kitchen also uses vegetables and mountain ingredients grown around Ashigara, Sagamihara, Mishima, and other carefully selected regions.

A standard dinner normally includes ten dishes presented in a carefully planned order. You may begin with small seasonal preparations before moving through sashimi, soup, grilled food, simmered dishes, a main course, rice, and dessert. The exact menu changes according to the season and the day’s ingredients.

A lighter plan reduces dinner to six dishes and breakfast to five, allowing you to enjoy the same seasonal approach in smaller portions. The standard Japanese breakfast includes seven dishes and may feature freshly cooked rice, locally selected vegetables, grilled dried fish, soup, and small side dishes.

Your dining location depends on the room and plan you select. Some plans serve meals in the ryokan’s dining rooms, while selected rooms support private in-room dining. Dinner generally begins around 6:00 PM, while breakfast is commonly arranged for 8:00 or 8:30 AM.

Vegetarian, gluten-free, allergy-related, religious, and other dietary requests can be considered when arranged before arrival. Children’s dishes and baby food are also available. Celebration meals can include red rice or dishes prepared for birthdays, anniversaries, first meals, and family milestones.

The drinks menu includes sake from Kanagawa and other parts of Japan, local craft beer, shochu, fruit liqueurs, wine, sparkling wine, whisky, and alcohol-free choices. Wine pairing sets provide three to five glasses selected to complement the seasonal kaiseki menu.

Onsen and Wellness

Ashikari uses Yugawara Onsen water with a source temperature of approximately 60°C. The spring is classified as a sodium-calcium chloride and sulfate spring that is mildly alkaline, hypotonic, and high-temperature.

The water has a soft feel against your skin. Traditional bathing indications include relief from muscle and joint discomfort, neuralgia, stiff shoulders, sensitivity to cold, tiredness, minor cuts, burns, and some chronic skin conditions. You should enjoy these as established hot spring indications rather than medical treatment.

Every room includes a private open-air bath with water flowing directly from the source. You can bathe early in the morning, after dinner, or late at night without leaving your accommodation. The private baths differ in size and materials, with stone surrounds, wooden decks, garden views, and mountain scenery found across the room categories.

Ashikari also has two shared bathing areas, Takane no Yu and Kusamakura no Yu. Takane no Yu looks across a moss garden toward the outer mountains of Hakone. Kusamakura no Yu uses granite, local Komatsu stone, and a small courtyard garden to create a more enclosed bathing atmosphere.

The shared baths open from 3:00 PM to midnight and again from 12:30 AM to 10:00 AM. The men’s and women’s sides switch at midnight, giving you the opportunity to experience both during an overnight stay.

SPA AJISAI offers oil treatments from therapists trained in Esalen Massage techniques. Treatments use long, flowing movements and sandalwood-based oils, with full-body, facial, foot, leg, head, and shoulder courses available by reservation.

Guests with Tattoos

If you have tattoos, you can use the source-flowing open-air bath in your room whenever you like. Every room includes a private onsen bath, so you can enjoy the full Yugawara hot spring experience without depending on the shared bathing areas.

Facilities

Ashikari includes 17 private-bath rooms, seasonal dining rooms, a dining lobby, two shared hot spring bathing areas, SPA AJISAI, a small shop, free Wi-Fi, outdoor parking, and an EV charging point. The entire building is non-smoking, with a designated smoking space outside.

The ryokan welcomes families with babies and young children. Available items include baby chairs, children’s chairs, bottle-preparation pots, diaper bins, small nap futons, bed guards, waterproof sheets, child toilet seats, children’s towels, toothbrushes, slippers, baby baths, thermometers, and cooling sheets. Loan items depend on availability.

Parking is available for around ten cars. The hillside layout and stairways form part of the property’s character, but they may require careful planning when you use a wheelchair or have limited mobility.

Activities

You can spend most of your stay enjoying your room, private bath, seasonal meals, garden views, and spa treatments. The illuminated trees create a particularly attractive setting after dark, while the decks give you space to listen to birds, insects, wind, and rain.

Manyo Park lies within the Yugawara Onsen area and offers walking paths beside the river and trees. The park takes its name from the Man’yoshu, Japan’s oldest surviving poetry collection, which includes a poem about Yugawara’s hot springs.

Fudo Falls gives you another easy nature stop in the upper part of the hot spring town. You can also visit the Yugawara Art Museum, explore the coast around Manazuru, or continue into Hakone for Lake Ashi, mountain views, museums, and shrine visits.

Ashikari can also help you mark a birthday, wedding anniversary, first birthday, first ceremonial meal, graduation, retirement, or longevity celebration with food and arrangements prepared in advance.

Additional Features

Kaiseki Ryoan Ashikari is located at 734 Miyakami, Yugawara, Kanagawa Prefecture. Check-in begins at 3:00 PM, and check-out is at 11:00 AM. Dinner plans normally require arrival by 6:00 PM.

A complimentary transfer connects the ryokan with JR Yugawara Station when reserved in advance. The drive from the station takes around seven minutes. The nearest bus stop is Michinaka, but the steep uphill walk makes the reserved transfer or a taxi more comfortable when you carry luggage.

Children are welcome, and dedicated baby and family plans are available. Major credit cards are accepted. Ashikari suits you when you want private source-flowing bathing, spacious rooms, detailed kaiseki cuisine, and a quiet hillside setting within easy reach of Tokyo, Hakone, and the Izu coast.