Overview

Discover two of Ikaho Onsen’s famous hot spring waters at Hotel Matsumotoro, a welcoming ryokan surrounded by the mountain scenery of Gunma. Ikaho has appeared in classical Japanese poetry and is counted among the three celebrated hot spring resorts of the former Jōshū region, together with Kusatsu and Shima.

Your stay brings together Golden Water and Silver Water baths, open-air bathing with wide mountain views, seasonal cuisine prepared with Gunma ingredients, and rooms suited to solo stays, couples, families, and time away across several generations.

Hotel Matsumotoro also places you close to Ikaho’s famous Stone Step Street. After exploring its shops, temples, and old hot spring atmosphere, you can return for a long soak, enjoy dinner at your own pace, and settle into a Japanese or Japanese-Western room.

Accommodation

You can choose from eight main room styles, including traditional tatami rooms, twin and double rooms, suites, and spacious barrier-free accommodation. Some rooms include a private Silver Water hot spring bath, while selected upper-floor rooms look across the mountains of Gunma.

Traditional Japanese rooms come in eight, ten, and twelve-tatami layouts. The compact eight-tatami room suits a shorter stay, while the ten-tatami room gives you more space to sit together. The twelve-tatami rooms work well for families, and selected fourth-floor rooms overlook the Tanigawa mountain range, Mount Onoko, and Mount Komochi.

Twin rooms range from simple Western layouts to Japanese-Western rooms with tatami living areas. Selected twin rooms include a semi-open-air Silver Water bath, while the mountain-view twin rooms add large windows, spacious sofas, rain showers, and ReFa hairdryers. The highest-grade twin room combines a tatami living area with an open-air Silver Water bath and broad mountain views.

Double rooms offer Japanese, Western, and hot spring layouts. The Japanese-style double room places the bed within a tatami setting, while the Western room has a simple bed-focused design. The hot spring double room includes its own semi-open-air bath.

Three suites give you more space and privacy. The Japanese-style suite has a large tatami-based interior, a hot spring bath, and a private sauna. The Western suite combines a spacious living area with an open-air bath and private sauna. The upper-floor Japanese-Western suite adds an outdoor deck, an infinity-style Silver Water bath, a löyly sauna, an indoor bath that can also serve as a cold bath, and mountain views.

Two barrier-free Japanese-Western rooms provide large open layouts, dining tables, terraces, open-air baths, and enough space to move in a wheelchair. Their generous size also makes them suitable when you are travelling with several generations of your family.

Special suite amenities include bathrobes, mineral water, and silk cocoons for skincare, reflecting Gunma’s long connection with silk production.

Dining

Dinner highlights ingredients grown and raised across Gunma. Seasonal vegetables, local meat, konnyaku, mountain produce, and freshwater fish appear in creative Japanese courses designed to bring out their natural taste.

The standard kaiseki course introduces you to regional ingredients such as Tsumagoi cabbage, sashimi konnyaku, and mountain vegetables. The upgraded course places greater focus on Joshu beef, known for its tender texture and gently sweet fat. Menus change with the seasons and available produce.

Other local ingredients may include Silk Salmon, a Gunma-raised fish with a smooth texture, pasture-raised eggs, and vegetables grown with water from the Tone River system. Careful presentation and carefully chosen tableware make each course enjoyable from the moment it arrives.

You can dine at Shiki Ryori Onoue, in the quiet private-room restaurant Shunju Kacho, or in Chitose, a family dining space with a small play area beside each table. Your dining location depends on your selected arrangement.

Smaller portions, chopped meals, original baby food, children’s menus, and vegan meals can be arranged in advance. Ingredient substitutions may also be possible for some allergies, although requests involving seasonings, shared cooking areas, or severe allergies may be difficult to accommodate.

Breakfast is a Japanese-focused buffet with dishes prepared from local vegetables. You can try simmered and dressed vegetables, kamameshi-style rice, Matsumotoro morning curry, Joshu Rokukoku pork shabu-shabu, Gunma-style motsuni, baked manju, and a daily smoothie. The exact selection changes with the season and number of people staying.

Onsen and Wellness

Hotel Matsumotoro gives you access to both of Ikaho’s natural hot spring waters. Kogane-no-Yu, or Golden Water, contains iron that turns the water a distinctive reddish-brown colour when exposed to air. The water feels gentle on the skin and provides a deeply warming soak.

Shirogane-no-Yu, or Silver Water, is clear and mild. Its low level of irritation makes it a comfortable choice for young children and older family members.

Golden Water flows continuously from the source, while Silver Water uses a circulating system. Both waters receive temperature adjustment before reaching the baths.

On the eighth floor, Kissho-no-Yu combines a spacious indoor bath with an open-air bath overlooking Mount Akagi, Mount Komochi, the Tanigawa mountain range, and the surrounding town. The view changes between the soft light of morning, distant mountains during the day, and the lights of Ikaho after dark.

On the second floor, Daikoku-no-Yu offers indoor and open-air bathing with both Golden Water and Silver Water. You can also enjoy a carbonated Silver Water bath, a deeper soaking bath, and a wood-scented sauna. The bathing facilities include a cold bath for cooling down after the sauna.

The men’s and women’s bath assignments change between the evening and morning, giving you the chance to experience both floors during an overnight stay.

Two private baths use the gentle Silver Water. Kigokoro-no-Yu has a round wooden tub suited to a quiet soak for two. Magokoro-no-Yu has very few level changes, a flat changing area, handrails, bathing chairs, and enough room to enter in a wheelchair.

Private baths cannot be booked before your arrival. Reserve your session at the front desk on the day of use. When you stay overnight and present a disability certificate, one use of Magokoro-no-Yu is included.

After bathing, you can arrange facial, body, leg and foot, head, or ear treatments. Gentle relaxation sessions use light rocking and stroking movements rather than strong pressure. Advance booking is recommended because therapists do not remain on site throughout the day.

Guests with Tattoos

You cannot use the shared indoor baths, open-air baths, saunas, or cold baths if you have tattoos. You can use Kigokoro-no-Yu or Magokoro-no-Yu in complete privacy. Reserve your private bath at the front desk after you arrive.

Facilities

The lounge changes atmosphere between day and evening and provides a comfortable place to meet, rest, or enjoy coffee and soft drinks. Beside the main entrance, a free-flowing Golden Water foot bath lets you warm your feet before heading out or after returning from Ikaho.

The children’s room has soft flooring, colourful cushions, a large drawing board, toys, a rocking horse, a trampoline, and a pretend kitchen. More than 100 picture books and illustrated reference books are available, and you can take selected books back to your room during your stay. A nursing room and a shared microwave are also available.

Dining facilities include Shiki Ryori Onoue, the private-room restaurant Shunju Kacho, and Chitose, where each dining table has an adjoining play space. These settings allow you to choose between an open dining room, greater privacy, or a more convenient meal with young children.

Haikara Department Store carries Gunma sweets, pickles, Japanese accessories, and original Matsumotoro products. Ikaho Bakery prepares soft, moist bread using a steam-assisted baking method. Its specialities include Golden Bread, Stone Step Pudding, and Stone Step Almond Jelly.

Free Wi-Fi is available in the rooms and shared areas. Room service for drinks and light food can be ordered from the tablet or information provided in your room.

Ramps, accessible toilets, wheelchairs, bathing chairs, and the barrier-free Magokoro-no-Yu support easier movement around the property. Some entrances to rooms and shared baths still have small steps, so assistance can be arranged when needed.

All rooms are non-smoking. Designated smoking rooms are available on selected floors. You can also use luggage storage, nearby parking, safes at the front desk, and a small number of wheelchairs with advance notice.

Activities

Explore Ikaho Stone Step Street, a historic flight of 365 steps lined with hot spring inns, cafés, souvenir shops, and shops selling the town’s famous hot spring manju. At the top, you can visit Ikaho Shrine before continuing towards the hot spring source.

Kajika Bridge is especially attractive during the fresh green season and autumn foliage. The red bridge stands close to the source of Golden Water and becomes one of Ikaho’s best-known seasonal sights.

Art and craft experiences nearby include the Ikaho Paper-Cutting Museum, where you can see local work and try paper cutting, and Usaburo Kokeshi, where you can paint your own creative wooden doll. The Takehisa Yumeji Ikaho Memorial Museum introduces you to the work of an artist closely connected with Japan’s Taisho Romantic period.

For time outdoors, visit Ikaho Green Bokujo for animal encounters, horse riding, and butter-making, or explore local farms for seasonal strawberry, blueberry, and apple picking.

Hotel Matsumotoro provides drop-off service to Stone Step Street and the Ikaho Ropeway, making it easier to begin your sightseeing from the upper part of the town.

Additional Features

You can wear your yukata outside the ryokan, with traditional sandals available in limited numbers. Family items include children’s yukata, bath supplies, toys, baby bedding, bottle-cleaning equipment, and feeding equipment.

Celebration support includes cakes, flowers, commemorative photographs, and arrangements for birthdays, anniversaries, and milestone occasions. Advance notice is required for personalised preparations.

You can store your luggage before check-in, use Wi-Fi throughout the property, order selected food and drinks to your room, and ask for help arranging taxis or local sightseeing. Private baths accept same-day reservations only and cannot be secured before arrival.