Overview

Look across the calm waters of Yuya Bay at Yuyawan Onsen Hotel Yokikan, a Japanese hot spring hotel set on an elevated stretch of Yamaguchi’s northern coast. Wide sea views, colourful sunsets, and the soft light reflected across the bay create a relaxing backdrop for your room, meals, and outdoor bathing.

Your stay brings together 13 room types, creative seasonal kaiseki, silky alkaline spring water, and easy access to the coastal scenery of Nagato. You can watch the sun descend over the bay, enjoy Yamaguchi seafood and sake, or spend an evening moving between the indoor baths, open-air baths, and saunas.

Motonosumi Shrine and Tsunoshima are both around 30 minutes away by car. The rice terraces, headlands, beaches, and fishing communities of the surrounding Yuya area also make this a rewarding base for exploring northern Yamaguchi.

Accommodation

You can choose from 13 room types across the Asanagi and Yunagi wings. The collection includes Japanese rooms with futon bedding, Japanese-Western rooms with tatami and beds, twin rooms, accessible accommodation, large suites, a two-storey maisonette, and rooms with private baths.

Many rooms face Yuya Bay, although the Asanagi Twin Rooms look towards the mountain side. Every room is non-smoking and includes Wi-Fi, a television, refrigerator, safe, kettle, air purifier with humidifying function, hairdryer, towels, indoor clothing, slippers, and a washlet toilet.

The Anniversary Floor in the Yunagi Wing includes four distinctive room styles. The 68-square-metre Japanese-Western room has a living area, twin bedroom, private open-air onsen with a jet function, and a separate cypress bath filled with regular heated water. The 38-square-metre twin room also includes an outdoor hot spring bath with jets and a separate shower area. Both use 100% source water in the outdoor bath, with heating and circulation, and include Simmons beds.

Two further Anniversary Floor categories have glass-enclosed jet baths facing the sea. The 75-square-metre Japanese-Western room combines twin beds with a six-tatami Japanese area, while the twin rooms measure between 38 and 50 square metres. These panoramic jet baths use regular heated water rather than natural hot spring water.

The top-floor special rooms in the Asanagi Wing were renewed in 2024. Each combines a 12.5-tatami Japanese room, living area, bedroom, and private cypress onsen bath. The bath uses 100% natural source water with heating and gives you an elevated view across the surrounding landscape.

The renewed Maisonette Special Room spreads across two floors. The lower level contains a ten-tatami Japanese room and twin bedroom, while the upper level has a private open-air hot spring bath and shower. This room retains the character of a traditional storehouse while giving you separate spaces for sleeping, relaxing, and bathing.

The Yunagi Japanese Special Room offers a 15-tatami room, an adjoining six-tatami area, a sunken kotatsu, rocking chairs, and a private cypress bath. The bath uses regular heated water rather than onsen water.

Standard accommodation includes spacious Japanese-Western rooms with a tatami area and twin bedroom, 12.5-tatami Japanese rooms with rocking chairs, and flexible New Style Rooms with beds, tables, seating, and a wired internet connection. A larger accessible twin room is also available.

Dining

Dinner celebrates the seafood, meat, vegetables, and rice of Yamaguchi through an original seasonal kaiseki course. The menu changes as ingredients reach their best condition, allowing you to experience different colours and flavours through spring, summer, autumn, and winter.

Local ingredients may include sweet swordtip squid, fugu during its main season, vegetables grown in Yamaguchi, and rice cultivated on the region’s terraced fields. Kenran beef, a Hagi-raised brand known for its rich flavour and fine marbling, may form the centre of selected dinner courses.

Additional dishes include Choshu Kuro Kashiwa chicken grilled to bring out its firm texture, gently steamed abalone, and whole live squid served as sashimi when the day’s catch and sea conditions allow. Because live squid depends on fishing conditions, it cannot always be guaranteed.

Dinner is normally served in one of the 17 private rooms at Asai. These spaces include table seating and sunken-kotatsu arrangements, allowing you to enjoy each course in a quieter setting. When the private rooms are full, meals may move to a sea-view dining hall.

In-room dinner is available only with selected plans in the Yunagi Wing. Your confirmed plan determines where you eat, so private in-room dining should not be assumed for every room category.

Breakfast is a Japanese set meal prepared with freshly cooked terraced-field rice and ingredients from the Kitaura coastal region. Gentle seasoning allows the natural taste of the rice, seafood, vegetables, and accompanying dishes to remain clear. Breakfast is served at one of three morning sittings.

Amanoyu offers additional Japanese dining with broad views across Yuya Bay. You can order sashimi, kamameshi rice, kawara soba cooked on a heated roof tile, and other regional dishes. The restaurant opens for lunch and dinner on selected days.

At the Umi to Tsuki sake bar, you can explore Yamaguchi labels such as Dassai and Toyo Bijin alongside lesser-known local sake. Drinks may also be arranged for takeaway or room service.

Food-allergy requests should be submitted before arrival. Adjustments cannot be made for complex dietary requirements, dislikes, or requests that require changes across the entire menu.

Onsen and Wellness

Yuyawan Onsen is an alkaline simple spring with a pH of 9.8. The water is colourless, clear, almost tasteless, and almost odourless, with a smooth texture that feels soft against your skin. Its high alkalinity has earned it a reputation as a skin-beautifying spring.

Traditional bathing indications include muscle discomfort, joint discomfort, neuralgia, frozen shoulder, bruises, sensitivity to cold, and fatigue. The low-temperature source water is heated for bathing, while the large shared baths use a circulation and filtration system.

Gensou no Yu and Yokihi no Yu each include spacious indoor baths, an open-air bath overlooking Yuya Bay, and a sauna. The sea and sky remain visible from both outdoor areas, with the sunset creating one of the most memorable times to bathe.

Gensou no Yu includes an electric bath beside the main indoor tub. Yokihi no Yu has a bath made with natural mineral stone. Each area offers a different bathing experience, and the men’s and women’s assignments change at midnight so you can try both during your stay.

The shared baths are open from 6:00 until midnight. The saunas close earlier in the evening. Bath schedules may change during regular maintenance days.

Three reservable family baths, Ichi no Yu, Ni no Yu, and San no Yu, were renewed in 2024. Each gives you a self-contained indoor bathing space with a changing area and access to the Sarasa post-bath lounge.

A private session lasts around 60 minutes, and each bath has space for a small family or group. Overnight bathing sessions are available in the morning and from mid-afternoon until late evening. Reservations are required.

Selected rooms also give you private access to Yuyawan Onsen. The Anniversary Floor open-air bath rooms use 100% source water with heating and circulation. The top-floor special rooms and maisonette have private baths supplied with 100% source water and heating. Rooms described only as having a jet bath or cypress bath may use regular heated water, so choose a room specifically marked as having an onsen when natural spring water is important to you.

The sea-facing Feel esthetic salon offers facial and body treatments using organic essential oils. You can select shorter targeted care or a longer treatment combining several areas of the body. Massage sessions are also available by reservation.

Guests with Tattoos

The shared indoor baths, open-air baths, saunas, and communal changing areas are not available when you have tattoos.

Use one of the three reservable family baths for a private bathing session. You can also choose a room with its own natural hot spring bath, allowing you to enjoy Yuyawan Onsen without entering the shared bathing areas.

Facilities

Amanoyu gives you a relaxed place for lunch or dinner while looking across Yuya Bay. Later in the evening, Umi to Tsuki offers Yamaguchi sake in a casual bar setting.

The sea-facing Feel salon provides aroma treatments, facial care, and body treatments. A separate massage service is available from late afternoon, with advance reservations recommended.

The souvenir shop carries Yamaguchi foods, local sake, sweets, and small keepsakes. Banquet halls provide space for celebrations, organised dinners, meetings, and larger gatherings.

Wi-Fi is available throughout the property. The building is non-smoking, with a designated smoking booth provided. The former Sarasa stone spa is no longer operating.

Activities

Motonosumi Shrine is around 30 minutes away by car. A long line of red torii gates follows the clifftop towards the sea, creating one of Yamaguchi’s most recognisable coastal views. Beside the shrine, Ryugu no Shiofuki can send seawater high above the rocks when strong winds and waves create the right conditions.

Tsunoshima and Tsunoshima Bridge are also around 30 minutes away. The bridge crosses bright blue-green water towards an island known for white beaches, coastal roads, and its stone lighthouse.

Closer to the hotel, you can explore the Yuya rice terraces and Senjojiki in around 20 minutes by car. The rice terraces are especially attractive when flooded fields reflect the sky, while Senjojiki gives you open grassland and broad views across the Sea of Japan.

A short drive takes you to Yokihi no Sato, a Chinese-style garden connected with the local legend that Yang Guifei reached this part of Japan. The story also inspired the hotel’s name and the names of its principal bathing areas.

Sea-kayaking operates on the calm waters of Yuya Bay during suitable seasons and weather. Guided outings let you explore the coastline from the water, with sunset sessions offering particularly warm light across the bay.

Aomi Island is around 30 minutes away and is known for dramatic rock formations along the Kita-Nagato coast. Sightseeing boats provide a closer look when sea conditions permit.

For a full-day cultural outing, drive around 50 minutes to Hagi. Preserved streets, samurai residences, former merchant houses, pottery traditions, and castle ruins introduce you to one of Yamaguchi’s most important historic towns.

Additional Features

Check-in begins at 15:00, and check-out is by 12:00. The later departure time gives you room for breakfast, another bath, or a quiet morning overlooking the bay.

Every room is non-smoking, and Wi-Fi is available throughout the building. Water servers are placed on the accommodation floors, while mineral water is prepared in selected room categories.

Complimentary parking is available for around 100 vehicles. EV charging facilities are also provided.

A reservation-based shuttle connects the hotel with Igami Station. The drive takes around two minutes, making rail access practical when the shuttle is arranged before arrival.