The Hiramatsu Sengokuhara
unscored · Ikyu 4.8 / 5no first-hand write-up in the thread
A 20-room Hiramatsu auberge in Sengokuhara where every room has a private Ōwakudani-source onsen bath and dinner is a full Italian course, a Western kitchen that is welcome after a run of kaiseki nights. It holds one Michelin Key, its second straight year with one. Ikyu guests love it overall (4.77 across 98 reviews), with portion size the one complaint that recurs.
Scores
Food
Dinner is a full Italian course, and most Ikyu guests find it superb, with the food at 4.7 across their reviews. The dining room seats families apart from couples. The complaint that recurs in the critical reviews is portion size, with small courses at dinner and a modest breakfast.
Bath
Every room has its own half-open-air bath, and the water is real onsen, kakenagashi from the Ōwakudani source, so hot that guests add cold water before they can get in. There is also a private bath to reserve, booked at check-in, so arrive early for a good slot. Ikyu guests give the bath 4.78, in line with their other marks here.
Service
At check-in the dinner and breakfast menus are handed to every guest and gone through ingredient by ingredient, with changes made willingly. Staff keep the right distance, and Ikyu guests give the service 4.79, with the faults in the reviews limited to small things like the fitness room's hours, now 8 to 8.
Room
Twenty modern auberge rooms, spacious and clean, with a huge two-person tub built into the room itself so it is easy to slip into, Bulgari toiletries, a well-chosen Gabbeh rug and a free minibar, and Ikyu guests give the rooms their highest mark here at 4.82. The quibbles in the reviews are small ones about the bathroom fittings.
Place
Sengokuhara is the quieter, grassy-highland corner of Hakone, and on clear days Mount Fuji shows from the room. The car park is a wide flat lot at the door.
Getting there
- Tokyo — 2h10, 1 transfer. Odakyu Romancecar Shinjuku→Hakone-Yumoto (~85 min), Tozan railway→Kōwakudani (~35 min), 5-min inn shuttle (reserve).
- Kyoto — 3h, 1 transfer. Reverse of: Direct Tozan BUS Gōra/Sengokuhara→Odawara (~45 min — one seat; Tozan rail adds a Hakone-Yumoto change), then Tōkaidō Shinkansen→Kyoto (~1h50 on the ~2-hourly Odawara-calling 'Hikari'; 'Kodama'+change or ~2h40 all-Kodama otherwise).
- Osaka — 3h25, 2 transfers. Midōsuji hop Umeda→Shin-Osaka, Tōkaidō 'Hikari' Shin-Osaka→Odawara (~2h05 — the same ~2-hourly Odawara-calling 'Hikari' the hakone>kyoto leg uses at ~1h50 to Kyoto, plus the ~15-min Kyoto–Shin-Osaka segment; 'Nozomi' skips Odawara and all-'Kodama' is ~2h40), then the direct Tozan BUS Odawara→Gōra/Sengokuhara (~45 min, one seat; the Tozan rail adds a Hakone-Yumoto change).