Hotel Sakaeya

Hotel Sakaeya is a small ryokan in the Yunotani hot-spring area of Uonuma, with twenty guest rooms and two communal baths, one indoor and one part open-air. Both are kept deliberately mild rather than hot, so guests tend to settle in and soak for a long stretch instead of a quick dip. The open-air side looks out toward Mount Komagatake, and the two baths swap between men and women each evening. The water runs clear, with some visitors noting a faint trace of sulfur. The building shows its age but is kept clean and warm, meals lean on local Uonuma rice and regional dishes served in a shared dining hall, and the whole place feels more like a quiet toji (湯治) retreat, an old-style long soaking stay, than a resort stop.