Sekizenkan Kashoutei

Nostalgic onsen. I could imagine that I’m in the Sen-to-Chihiro. Plus there are four onsen this Japanese style hotel. We are able to experience both modern and historical type of onsen.

Beware of deceitful hotel room listing by this hotel. I was allocated a room without toilet and balcony in a different older building of the hotel upon arrival. They admitted in person to this mistake but still took my online booking money anyway when I canceled with them and stayed at another hotel. They made promises in person to refund but went back on that when I had left Japan. Be very careful with these people (one if them is staff Takumi Okada), despite the fame of this onsen.

Great place to go if your want tranquility. Room in our hotel (I don't remember the name but there's only one modern onsen hotel there) is clean, modern and spaceous. Service is top notch. Nearest convenience store is 20min drive away so if you want a small rural town atmosphere this is the place to go.

This place is magical, very old and traditional with a new modern wing on the top of the mountain. Variety of 4 baths , also private bath for family available ( extra charge). Food was excellent the only minus thing was that the heater didn’t work as I expected , it was a bit cold in the room. Next time we will try the modern part of the hotel.

Japanese traditional hotel that has long history and beautiful night scape. If you go on a car, you must take care of your car’s widths. Roads of this area are almost narrow.

Excellent Japanese onsen hotel Highly recommended

I've been here twice. Once came through on my road bike and the other time with family. Both times were just a day trip. Shima onsen is quite spread out and requires some walking. There is one main parking area otherwise parking was hard to find. I suggest visiting the nearby dam site (Shimagawa dam) if you have a car. There is a nice park at the base of it and you can walk down to the clean river. If you enjoy hiking and nature there seems to be plenty of places to enjoy that.

Back at Sekizenkan and decided to change the rating from 2 to 4 stars because this time the staff on the Ground and first floor have been so kind and welcoming. The review below of our previous visit remains as a reminder of our experience on that occasion. Previous visit: "We have visited Sekizenkan several times and have always been attracted by the history, the lovely baths, the food and the lovely staff who are always so kind and considerate. My wife decided to surprise me for my birthday by booking the best room in the hotel - "mori". A beautiful room with it's own outside onsen bath looking out to the 300 year old pine trees that act like a curtain to provide privacy. We were lucky enough to have some snow to complete the picture perfect scene. Everything was perfect until we tried to use the shower and I managed to scald myself a little because the water seemed to suddenly get really hot without warning. We wanted to use the overhead shower but found that it had not been fitted properly and was just loose from the wall (please see photos of room and shower cubicle). What a disappointment to what should have been a fantastic birthday surprise. Even more disappointing when you consider the cost which is double during the New Year holidays. My wife did complain to the manager and also reminded him a similar complaint had been made by another customer only a few months earlier but nothing had been done to fix the problem. We received a simple apology but little else. I just hope no young children use this room as there is a potential for someone to get injured using a defective shower that could cause someone to get scalded with hot water. I really hope the management take some maintenance action and show more consideration to customers who pay 5 star rates for a room in Sekizenkan. All our previous experiences have been excellent but this time deeply disappointed".