Chaharu

Chaharu sits about a minute's walk from Dogo Onsen Honkan, with a rooftop open-air bath and a large indoor bath on its upper floors, split into a women's bath (Tsuki no Yu) and a men's bath (Hoshi no Yu). The water is alkaline and simple in mineral makeup, smooth on the skin with little sting, and from the baths you can look south toward Matsuyama Castle and north toward Mount Ishizuchi. The main building's rooms don't have their own onsen bath (that's reserved for the connected annex, Yumekura), but guests still get the shared baths on top. The inn pairs modern, calm rooms with kaiseki dinners or buffet options and a restaurant that also takes non-staying guests for meals only, plus a kimono bar downstairs. It reads as a comfortable, contemporary base for soaking in one of Japan's oldest hot spring towns rather than an old-fashioned wooden ryokan.