People travel for many different reasons and find all kinds of small pleasures in various parts of the trip. After you fly for a long time to the other side of the Earth (using award tickets of course), one of these pleasures — which you’ve probably heard of — is the Japanese hot spring, called an onsen. Most of them have separate facilities for men and women (families are not allowed), and people with tattoos are usually not allowed to enter either. There are a few other rules as well, unless… you end up in a private hot-spring bath or pool. Many hotels offer these right in the room, or even on the balcony, with open air and a view. Here’s a short list of some of the hotels with open-air onsens on the balconies.
There are a lot of rooms with private open-air baths. The hotel is rather far from touristy areas – it is on the Kyushu island, fairly close to Fukuoka.
Also on the Kyushu island, but somewhat popular amongst english speaking public, probably because of the Tsuetate Onsen Carp Streamer Festival close by. Very few rooms with open-air baths, but those that do are great – private and quiet.
Rather interesting type of hotel, this is a villa/cabin style lodging, somewhat remote but with ocean view.
Very popular area in Japan amongst visitors and Japanese folks – Hakone mountain. It offers fairly unique hot springs as well, be prepared for a different skin experience. Only two rooms have private balcony onsens, and if you stay in the other rooms you’d need to walk a few minutes to the time-shared baths.
Another popular area for onsen-type of crowd as well as nature loving people – snow monkeys park is only a 30 minutes walking distance. Another famous nearby place is a possible inspiration for Miyazaki’s (Studio Ghibli) film Spirited Away. Sakaeya has only two rooms with open-air onsens unfortunately, but they both are truly great.
Hot spring bath on the balcony and a Fuji view? Yes, please! There are a lot of hotels with private balcony onsens around Lake Kawaguchi.
One more super-popular and well-known area – Shirakawa-go. There aren’t many hotels with the private baths and a view – Onyado is one of the very few.
Somewhat remote place in a creepy and run-down town of Kinugawa. Yet, the hotel is huge, very popular amongst Japanese folks. Only 4 or 5 rooms with outdoor baths.
