Unzen Kanko Hotel

Unzen Kanko Hotel opened in October 1935, when Unzen was a summer retreat for foreigners from Nagasaki and Shanghai. The hotel says it began as a shipping company's venture and took an ocean liner as its model. The building is a Swiss-chalet design in half-timber, with a concrete basement and ground floor and two wooden floors above; it was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. The US military requisitioned it from 1946 to 1950. All rooms are Western style, redone with William Morris wallpaper. The bath is the part people remember: strongly acidic sulfur water that comes out of the ground at 93.5 degrees and is cooled before it reaches the tub, under a domed ceiling with stained glass and Art Deco tiles. Dinner is a French-style course from local produce, in a dining room that still has its 1935 floorboards, and lunch includes a beef curry made to the opening-year recipe. The Japanese website has been down for maintenance since October 2026; call before you plan around it.