Hotel Musashiya

Rooms and decor

Coming in at #6, Hotel Musashiya is a small onsen ryokan we point toward anyone who wants a base in the actual heart of Motohakone. The building is a wood-and-concrete Showa-era house run by a family that has kept it going across several generations. Rooms are traditional tatami — futons laid on the floor, a low Japanese tea table in the middle, and somewhere around 20-28 sq m of space. It is old-school Japan, not a modern hotel, and the decor shows its age; that is the honest trade for the address and the price.

Food and amenities

The communal onsen baths are split by gender and come in both indoor and outdoor versions, fed by clear Hakone hot-spring water that is gentle on the skin. Dinner is served ryokan-style at the shared dining room — seasonal fish, grilled meat, miso soup, and a dish of local brown rice. There is free parking and free Wi-Fi, plus the kind of warm personal service you get at a small house rather than a big resort. It is a straightforward set-up, but it covers what you actually came to a ryokan for.

Location and getting there

The Motohakone spot is the whole point. Three big sights sit within reach at once: Hakone Shrine with its red torii standing in the lake is 1.3 km off — a 4-minute drive or an 18-minute walk along the shore — the pirate-ship cruise pier on Lake Ashi is 1.4 km away, and a lakeside Fuji viewpoint is right by the ryokan. For travelers who are not driving and who lean on a Hakone Free Pass, this address does real work — you walk and take the boat instead of waiting on a bus the way you would over on the Togendai side. Owakudani is 8 km out, about a 20-minute drive.

Things to know before booking

This is an old ryokan, so set expectations on the decor — it is dated, and it is not trying to compete with the modern places on the list. Booking sites also carry only a limited set of photos, which makes it harder to preview rooms before you commit. And not every room looks at the water: several upper-floor rooms get the full sweep of Lake Ashi, but the rear rooms face the forested hill, and the lake-view rooms book out fast in high season. Ask for a lake-view room outright, and confirm whether your rate includes the ryokan dinner.

Our take

Hotel Musashiya is best for couples and families who want a genuine onsen-ryokan stay in central Motohakone and plan to get around mainly on foot and by boat. On a clear winter morning you can soak in the onsen, pull on a yukata, and walk down to the lakeshore to watch the geese while Fuji shows itself over the water — a real ryokan rhythm a modern hotel can't hand you. With an overall score of 8.9 and rooms from about $157, it delivers exactly what the price promises. We'd steer you here when you value location and atmosphere over outright luxury — a ryokan where the address works for you from the moment you step out the door.