About Yuyado Daiichi

Yuyado Daiichi is an onsen inn in Nakashibetsu, Hokkaido. Cradled by deep forest and the clear waters of the Shibetsu River, its large mixed-gender open-air bath is built of rock with almost nothing separating it from the river, and sitting in it feels like becoming part of nature. The men’s bath has a log tub carved from spruce several hundred years old, and the women’s bath has an open-air bath of stacked rock. Both hold natural onsen water fed straight from the source, never recirculated. With six saunas across the men’s and women’s sides, the inn won the 2025 Grand Prix at SAUNACHELIN, Japan’s largest sauna award. The standout is a sauna where water from the source pours down inside the room like a waterfall. Through a large window you look out on the Shibetsu River while wrapped in moist heat from löyly that never stops. Once you have soaked up the heat, you slip straight into the river flowing right beside the open-air bath.