Onogawa Onsen Hojunoyu

This ryokan sits on a low hill above Onogawa Onsen, a small hot spring town in the hills behind Yonezawa. Its indoor bath and one of its two private outdoor baths look out over the town below; the other outdoor bath is set up instead for watching the night sky. The water is a warm, faintly sulfurous spring, blended from two source springs to reach bathing temperature and kept flowing fresh, and it holds its heat well after you get out. Besides the shared indoor bath there's a private family bath too, plus a footbath cafe by a mountain stream where day visitors can sit with a drink over the same view. It's a small, 12-room ryokan on three floors with no elevator, and breakfast leans on local Yonezawa ingredients. Standard plans come without dinner, but booking through the inn's own website adds a sukiyaki dinner set, and the cafe stays open for lunch. Onogawa Onsen itself has an old legend behind it: the Heian-era poet Ono no Komachi is said to have bathed here while traveling, and the feudal lord Date Masamune came for the same water centuries later after a riding injury.