Sukayu Onsen Day 1 Part 2: A Room Tour at a Historic Mountain Onsen

In this post, I’ll introduce the room where I stayed at Sukayu Onsen.

I stayed in Room 707 in Building No. 7.

The room was on the second floor, a little farther inside from the entrance.
Walking there felt a bit like exploring an old building, and honestly, that made it exciting.

If you haven’t read Part 1 yet, I wrote about the shuttle bus ride to Sukayu Onsen, arriving at the inn, having lunch at Onimen-an, and taking my first bath.

Read it here:Sukayu Onsen Day 1 – Access Guide, Snow, and Women’s Bath

The Room

First, let’s take a look at the room itself.

Yes. This is it.
This is exactly the kind of nostalgic Japanese-style room I wanted.

The room was a six-tatami room, about 10 square meters.
The light was the old-fashioned type that you turn off by pulling a cord.

The room had a slightly dim, old-timey atmosphere.
Rather than being brightly lit by modern lights, it felt like natural light from the window gently brightened the room.

Of course, polished modern hotels are wonderful.

But staying in an old-fashioned room like this?
That has its own special charm.

The futon on the right side of the room was something I could lay out whenever I wanted.

At many traditional ryokan inns, the staff come into your room while you are having dinner and lay out the futon for you.
At Sukayu Onsen, at least in the room where I stayed, that service was not included.

But honestly, I liked that.

After taking a bath and feeling pleasantly tired, you can lay out the futon yourself and just collapse onto it.

That, to me, is one of the greatest luxuries of staying at an onsen.

As you can see, the room key was very simple.

The Hiroen Space by the Window

Next is the space by the window.

This area is called hiroen（広縁） in Japanese.

To be honest, I didn’t even know this word until I started writing this article, so don’t worry.
You do not need to memorize it. Haha.

It is basically a small sitting area beside the tatami room.

Since it was the only place in the room with chairs, it felt like a nice little space to sit down, face each other, and relax.

I visited Sukayu Onsen in late November, and there was already a little snow outside.

That is Sukayu for you.

Sukayu is known as one of the snowiest inhabited areas in the world.

A little cold air came in through the window, but if the room felt cold, I could adjust the temperature with the kerosene heater in the room.

There was a pot of water in the hiroen space.

I assume it was Hakkoda water, which I also mentioned in Day 1.

The water was at room temperature.
Maybe this is done intentionally so that it is gentler on the body after bathing.

And yes — this water was good.
Very good.

There were three sticks of premium sencha green tea and a sweet called Nebuta no Himatsuri.

The sweet had a Nebuta design on it.
It was sweet, and it went incredibly well with the tea.

I also saw it for sale in the souvenir shop.

By the way, the old-looking table and the box for the tea sweets were both made with Tsugaru-nuri, a traditional lacquerware craft from Aomori.

I could not help thinking, “This must have been expensive…”

Even the small details had weight.

Room Amenities

Yukata

There were M and L size yukata in the room.

Other sizes were placed in the hallway at Sukayu Onsen.

Rental Items and Other Amenities

There was an information booklet on the table.

I did not see an English version, so I’ll briefly summarize the information here.

This information is from November 2025.

Free rental items included:

• legless chairs
• desk lamps
• kitchen knives

Paid rental items included:

• simple bed: 1,000 yen before tax per use
• refrigerator: 1,000 yen before tax per use

If you want to borrow these items, you need to ask the front desk or room staff.

Toothbrushes and towels were provided in the room.

Razors were available at the front desk, so if you need one, you can ask there.

A Few Things to Know

Please keep your voice down after 9 p.m.

Why?

Because this room is separated from the hallway by just one fusuma sliding door.

In other words, sound travels straight through.

You can hear the hallway, and the hallway can probably hear you.

So it is better to be careful not only at night, but also early in the morning.

In my case, I woke up around 5 a.m. because I heard two women talking in the hallway.
They were probably heading to the bath.

So yes — please be mindful of the time when talking in the hallway.

Also, my room was close to the toilet, and I could constantly hear the sound of running water.

I assume the water was being left running to prevent the pipes from freezing.

Personally, I actually like the sound of running water, so it did not bother me.

But if you are sensitive to sound, it may be a good idea to bring earplugs.

In the next post, I’ll write about dinner and breakfast at Sukayu Onsen.