Yuyado Unzen Shinyu

Shinyu dates from 1908 by its Japanese site (the English page says 1907) and is still run by the Shinyu Hotel company, now under the name Yuyado Unzen Shinyu. Its claim is the water. Four private sources rise on the grounds, which the hotel says makes it the only inn in Unzen with four, and they give three kinds of spring: acidic sulfur, simple acidic and simple sulfur. The baths draw on different sources. The family bath Madoka, on the first, and the Kinugasa and Kasho baths, which share the third, are fed straight from the source; the large bath Kosensho, with its open-air section, is filtered and recirculated. Baths are open 15:00 to midnight and 6:00 to 9:00, and Madoka can be booked by staying guests for 2,200 yen per 50 minutes. The four Tsukiniwa rooms have an open-air tub of hinoki or Shigaraki ware facing an old garden, fed from the fourth source. There are 49 rooms in all, Japanese and Japanese-Western. Dinner is kaiseki in one of five dining rooms, two of them private or semi-private. There is a book lounge and a café. The hotel says English-speaking staff or a translation device are available.