Shichikama-So

Shichikama-So is a small ryokan of 17 tatami rooms at Shichikama Onsen, on Hyogo's San'in coast. Its outdoor bath is a kama-buro (釜風呂), an iron cauldron-style tub, said to be the only one at this onsen, alongside a separate large indoor bath kept apart for men and women. The inn is known locally as the crab sommelier's house: the owner personally judges and prepares Matsuba and snow crab through the winter season, and builds seasonal kaiseki dinners around whatever the coast has landed that day, from firefly squid to local shrimp. It's an old family inn, run today by the proprietress and her daughters.