Shinshu Shibu Onsen Kokuyaya

After earning my Onsen Sommelier Master certification, I’ve been gradually visiting Onsen around Japan.The water quality in Shibu Onsen is truly wonderful. I was surprised by how many international visitors there were. Because the public bath tour was crowded, I couldn’t visit them all… but I was able to enjoy almost all of the baths at the Ryokan.The staff were very friendly and relaxed, which made my stay truly soothing.To Mr. Y from the male staff: thank you for all the fun conversations. If you have time, please do come to Niigata again.

I stayed for a Multiple Night Stay of 2 nights.Because I made the Reservation for the second night later after a vacancy opened up, I stayed in different Rooms on the first and second nights.On the first night, I really enjoyed the nostalgic atmosphere of having a kotatsu again for the first time in a while, and it was such a wonderful Room that I was very satisfied.On the second night, I stayed in an especially luxurious Room with an Onsen bath, thoughtfully arranged so you can listen to music while soaking.As for the private baths inside the building, there were options where you can soak in baths fed by multiple hot spring sources, as well as one where you can luxuriously reserve an extremely large public bath for private use.I had plenty of fun doing an indoor hot spring tour as well.Advance Reservations were available until around 9:00 PM; after that, if there was availability, it was sometimes possible to use them without a Reservation.Thanks to that, even though I couldn’t reserve some of the private baths beforehand, I was able to try all of them over the course of the night.When people think of Shibu Onsen they often think of “the Nine-Bath Pilgrimage,” and after doing it myself, I felt this Accommodation is in an excellent location for it.If you head left you reach Baths 1–3; if you head right you reach Baths 4–9. Bath 9 (Oyu) is almost next door. Since Bath 3 and Bath 5 are about equally far away—the farthest points on each side—it felt like this place is located almost right in the middle of all nine baths.In particular, having Bath 9 (Oyu), likely one of the most crowded baths, so close by is very appealing for Onsen lovers.This is just my personal preference: at some Onsen (the ones in my Room and at one large bath), I couldn’t find a hot spring analysis sheet showing water quality details (though it’s possible I simply missed it), so I reduced my rating by one star.That said, I was very satisfied with the Onsen overall; judging from visible yunohana mineral deposits alone, there’s no doubt about its quality.The water qualities vary from bath to bath; personally I even felt therapeutic benefits, and I would gladly stay again.