In Hakone a private bath in your room is not unusual: seven of the 14 Hakone ryokans on japanstays have one in every room, according to the inns. At six more it only applies to some rooms, so the room type decides. If you do not want to share the bath with strangers, there is plenty of choice, but you need to look closely when booking.
Three kinds of “private”
A bath in your room. Your own bath, often semi-open-air or on the balcony. You bathe whenever you like. Kinnotake Tonosawa has an open-air bath in all 21 rooms and no public bath at all.
A private hire bath (kashikiri). A bath you use alone or with your companion for a set time, usually 40 to 60 minutes. Gora Kadan charges nothing for 40 minutes, Hakone Kyuan 3,000 yen, and Yama no Chaya and Matsuzakaya Honten 5,500 yen each. Fukuzumiro has no room baths but three private baths you can use without booking.
A room type with a bath. At inns such as Yama no Chaya (11 of 15 rooms), Gora Kadan or Yoshiike, only certain rooms have a bath. The room without one is cheaper, and you still have the shared bath.
Spring water or tap water
A bath in the room is not automatically an onsen. At Hakone Kyuan and Hakone Suishoen, according to the inns, free-flowing spring water feeds the room bath (kakenagashi: the water keeps flowing and is not recirculated). Hatsuhana dilutes its water because it comes out of the spring at 57 °C. At Senkyoro only the six villas have their own spring bath, and at Matsuzakaya Honten only some rooms. The table below shows each inn.
By area
- Hakone-Yumoto and Tonosawa: closest to Hakone-Yumoto station, where the Romancecar from Shinjuku arrives. Here you find Hatsuhana, Yoshiike, Kinnotake Tonosawa, Yama no Chaya and Fukuzumiro.
- Miyanoshita and Kowakudani: halfway up the mountain railway, with Hakone Ginyu and Hakone Suishoen.
- Gora and Ninotaira: at the top of the mountain railway, with Gora Kadan, Gora Hanaougi and Hakone Kyuan.
- Sengokuhara: in the high valley, with Senkyoro (milky sulphur water from Owakudani) and Hakone Yuyado Zen.
- Lake Ashi: on the shore, with Ryuguden.
- Ashinoyu: with Matsuzakaya Honten, founded in 1662.
How to spot the right room
On booking sites the bath often appears in the room type name, for example “with open-air bath” or “with private hot spring”. For inns where only some rooms have a bath, check the inn’s own website as well; the links are on each inn page under “Sources”.
Tattoos and your own bath
With tattoos, your own bath is the safe option, because the rules almost always apply to the shared bath. Hatsuhana and Senkyoro explicitly let guests with tattoos use the room and private hire baths, but not the large bath. More in the guide Tattoos at onsen and ryokans.
