よろこびの宿 しん喜

Yorokobi no Yado Shinki sits on a hillside above Ikaho, and both of its communal bath floors look straight out at the view. Mayudama-no-yu has big windows facing Mt. Akagi and the Nikko mountains, and its outdoor bath changes with the seasons: fresh green in spring, colored leaves in autumn, snow in winter. Shiratama-no-yu adds a wide panoramic outdoor bath with a couple of reclining-bath spots, taking in the same mountains by day and the lights of Shibukawa and Skyland Park by evening. Men's and women's sides swap at 5am, so an overnight stay lets you try both. There's no sauna, but two small reservable baths, a round ceramic tub and a square one tiled in a hinoki style, can be booked in 45-minute slots for bathing alone. The water is Ikaho's own Shirogane-no-yu (白銀の湯). Reviews describe it as a settled, long-running kind of inn: tidy rooms, friendly staff, and free massage chairs after a soak. It's a quiet walk of about ten minutes down through the old back streets of Ura-Ikaho, past Showa-era shopfronts, to the stone steps below.