Menmentei WatayaUnclaimed

About 10 minutes by car from Iwamuro Station on the JR Echigo Line. For parties of two or more there is a free shuttle bus (booking required at least 3 days ahead). Pick-ups leave Iwamuro Station at 15:15 and Yahiko Station at 16:00; the return leaves Wataya at 9:30. There is also a bus from Tokyo to Iwamuro Onsen, and we collect guests after it arrives.

Check-in is 15:00 and check-out is 10:00. Times may differ by plan, so please check when booking.

Please contact the property before booking about bringing a pet, and we will advise whether we can accommodate it.

Iwamuro Onsen has long prospered as a base for visiting Yahiko Shrine, the first shrine of Echigo. The free shuttle bus also stops at Yahiko Station, so Yahiko Shrine and the Mount Yahiko ropeway are easy to reach.

There are rooms with an indoor bath fed straight from the source, so you can have the hot spring to yourself in your room. Please see the official website or ask at the front desk for details.

Its predecessor, Menmentei Wataya, ran as an inn from the An-ei era in the mid-Edo period. The family name Wataya came from their cotton business, and they opened as a hot spring inn in the mid-Meiji period. The inn reopened after renovation in autumn 2013, combining modern facilities with the warmth of a long-established house.

Wataya no Yu is the only blended spring in Niigata Prefecture, mixing the Iwamuro Onsen source with source 3 of Tahoo Onsen Dairo no Yu at our sister inn. It is a sulphur-bearing sodium-calcium chloride spring (hypotonic and alkaline), whose sulphur content makes it very good for the skin, earning it the name the lustrous-skin bath. It is used straight from the source.

From the open-air bath with its view on the fourth floor of the main building you can see Mount Shogaku, sometimes called Iwamuro Fuji and formed by a lava dome, and Mount Tahoo. You bathe while watching the mountains change through the seasons.

It has more than 300 years of history since the Edo period and was designated a National Health Resort Hot Spring in 1963. Known as a base for visiting Yahiko Shrine, its water is notable for its sulphur content and also has the character of a black spring. The Sea of Japan is about 5 minutes away by car, so fresh seafood is another attraction.

We serve creative dishes using Koshihikari rice grown organically on our own farm and seasonal Niigata vegetables. Our pride is the combination of dishes built on the best produce of the moment with fresh seafood from the Sea of Japan.

It is a historic sukiya-style building dating from the Menmentei Wataya days, preserved in 2014 by moving the whole structure. It has been carefully kept as a symbol of the inn even after the new Wataya was built, and it conveys the atmosphere of an Edo-period tea-house annex.

There is a car park. Please see the official website or contact the property about capacity and how to use it.

Wi-Fi is available. Please contact the property for details on where it can be used and any charges.

About 10 minutes by car from Iwamuro Station on the JR Echigo Line (a free shuttle bus is available for parties of two or more, booking required at least 3 days ahead). About 20 minutes from Maki-Katahigashi IC on the Hokuriku Expressway, or about 30 minutes from Sanjo-Tsubame IC.

15:00.

10:00.

Parking is available. Please contact the property for details.

581 Iwamuro Onsen, Nishikan Ward, Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture