Overview
Stay among tall cedar trees in Akakura Onsen, inside Myoko-Togakushi Renzan National Park. Hotel Mumon is a small, family-run hot spring hotel that has welcomed travellers since 1971. Its forest setting gives you a restful place to return to after skiing, walking, or exploring the Myoko highlands.
Akakura Onsen Ski Area is within walking distance, while several other Myoko ski resorts are a short drive away. Back at the hotel, you can soak in free-flowing natural hot spring water, enjoy a Japanese-Western dinner, and relax beside the fireplace or at the retro-style bar.
Accommodation
You can choose from Twin, Semi-Double, and Japanese rooms. The simple interiors suit a mountain stay, with windows looking toward the trees and natural scenery around the hotel.
Twin Rooms are available with or without an en-suite bath and toilet. The Semi-Double Room is designed for solo travel and includes its own bath and toilet. Japanese Rooms give you a traditional tatami setting and use the hotel’s shared bathroom facilities.
Your room includes a television, Japanese tea set, towels, bath towels, a toothbrush, yukata, slippers, body wash, and rinse-in shampoo. Hairdryers are available to borrow. Free Wi-Fi is available throughout the building.
Dining
Dinner is served at Restaurant Dorane, where large windows frame the surrounding forest. The menu brings Japanese and Western cooking together, using seasonal ingredients from the Myoko highlands and fresh fish delivered from the Sea of Japan.
The signature dish is Hotel Mumon’s slow-cooked beef stew. Beef tendon and vegetables are simmered for a week to create the original demi-glace sauce, then the meat cooks for another three days until it becomes tender. A full-course dinner may also include fish carpaccio, grilled salmon collar, baked highland tomatoes, simmered seasonal vegetables, local egonori seaweed with miso, ginger rice, and bamboo-shoot miso soup.
Selected dinners let you choose marbled beef prepared as steak, sukiyaki, or shabu-shabu. Lighter plans centre on the beef stew with soup, salad, and bread or rice. Individual dishes change with the season and available ingredients.
Breakfast is Western-style and uses seasonal produce and vegetables from the Myoko area. Fresh bread and coffee give you a simple, warming start before a day outdoors.
Onsen and Wellness
The separate men’s and women’s indoor baths contain 100% free-flowing natural water from Akakura Onsen. You can use the baths throughout the day and night, making it easy to soak after skiing or enjoy an early-morning bath before breakfast.
Akakura Onsen opened in 1816 and was the only hot spring in Japan originally operated by a feudal domain. The water combines calcium, sodium, magnesium, sulfate, and bicarbonate minerals. It is associated with relief from fatigue, nerve pain, muscle and joint discomfort, stiff shoulders, bruises, sprains, sensitivity to cold, and reduced joint movement.
The baths remain available for 24 hours. The showers stop operating between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM, although you can continue soaking during that period. All hot spring bathing takes place in the shared indoor baths.
Guests with Tattoos
You cannot use the shared natural hot spring baths if you have tattoos.
Facilities
Hotel Mumon includes Restaurant Dorane, a bar serving wine, whisky, beer, and other drinks, and a souvenir shop with locally produced jam, sweets, accessories, and small gifts. The fireplace lounge gives you a warm place to sit during the colder months, while free Wi-Fi helps you plan your next day or keep in touch.
You also have access to vending machines, a café area, a tea room, a seasonal barbecue garden, and on-site parking. The quiet scale and forest setting make it easy to spend your evening inside after returning from the mountain.
Activities
Walk to Akakura Onsen Ski Area in around 11 minutes for powder snow, night skiing, and slopes suited to different experience levels. Akakura Kanko Resort, Ikenotaira Onsen Alpen Blick, Myoko Suginohara, and Seki Onsen are also within easy driving distance.
During the green season, visit Naena Falls, where water drops 55 metres into a rocky gorge. Imori Pond offers an easier walk along a short path with views of Mount Myoko reflected in the water. You can also play golf beneath the mountain, explore the forests and trails of the national park, or take a longer outing to Togakushi.
Additional Features
Check-in begins at 3:00 PM, and check-out is by 10:00 AM. Myoko-Kogen Station and the Myoko-Kogen Interchange are each around ten minutes away by car.
Parking is available on a first-come basis. During winter, you should arrive in a four-wheel-drive vehicle with suitable winter tyres because deep snow and icy roads are common around Akakura.
