Yuyado Motokawarayu

The a**osphere of the entire village is indescribably good. I can't get enough of the a**osphere of the snowy country. I wanted to go again and again.

Since the state of emergency has been lifted, I stayed there to collect stamps from the secret hot spring protection group. I searched the official website of the Secret Hot Springs Protection Association by specifying the date and general area, and selected this inn from among the candidates that came up. Hijiori Onsen is about 40 minutes by car from Shinjo city. Finally, the loop-shaped bridge that spans the steep slope leading down to the hot spring town is a bit unusual. Without this bridge, it would probably be difficult to access by car in the winter. Additionally, the road to the south towards Sagae was closed for a long time due to construction. As you walk down the narrow streets of the hot spring town, you will find this inn, a four-story building facing the river. It does not have the a**osphere of a lonely country inn, which is typical of secret hot spring club inns. It feels like a long-established inn in a hot spring town. The outside looks a bit dated, but the inside has been beautifully renovated. I was shown a twin room with tatami mats on the first floor facing the river. Rooms on the other side face the parking lot, so a room facing the river would be better. We were told in advance to keep the windows open and to use the air conditioner because stink bugs would come in. It had an interesting floor plan, with a washbasin in the bathroom, and you had to put on slippers and leave the room to go to it. Although it was cleaned well, there seemed to be some areas that were not visible, such as a toothbrush on the floor that seemed to have been used by a previous customer. This inn is probably run mostly by families, as only two people, a man and a woman, came out to the public. There seemed to be someone else working behind the scenes, but I was impressed by how well the two of them were managing the restaurant even though there were quite a lot of customers during mealtimes. There are two bathrooms: the observation bath on the fourth floor and the private bath on the first floor. Private baths use only the private hot spring source, and the quality of the hot spring water is different from the observation baths, which use a mixture of two types of hot spring sources. Both waters are fed directly from the source, and it seems that they are not chlorinated or disinfected. The spring quality name is ``sodium-bicarbonate/chloride spring'' (in-house source). The hot spring is brown in color and has a slightly metallic smell. It was a hot spring that warms up well and is typical of an inn that is a member of the Hidden Hot Springs Association. For meals, both dinner and breakfast are served at the restaurant on the second floor. Irori seems to be a selling point, but not all seats have it. It seemed like the seats were spaced out a bit as a precaution against the coronavirus, but there were no shielding boards between the seats except for a few. As for the food, you can enjoy Yamagata-style cuisine with perfect quantity, taste, and volume. However, the price seems to be slightly higher as well. I stayed on the standard accommodation plan, but compared to the other Hidden Hot Spring Club accommodations I stayed at on this trip (all on the standard plan), it was about 2,000 yen per person per night, which was more expensive. I thought this would be a good place to stay when I visit Hijiori Onsen again. One of its strengths is that it has its own hot spring source separate from the centrally supplied hot water. However, as mentioned above, there is an undeniable feeling that there is a shortage of staff, so it may not be suitable for those who are looking for detailed customer service.

両親と肘ロ温泉に15年前に訪れました。 今回は、2泊お世話になりました。 除雪作業が大変です。 そして窓越しに東京のキーテレビ局であるテレビ朝日のクルーとカメラマンが朝から取材をしているいることが何度も垣間見れました。 温泉のお風呂は最高です。 しかし料理は、あか抜けません。