KAI Okuhida

KAI Okuhida is a 49-room ryokan (a traditional Japanese inn where guests dine and sleep) that opened on 5 September 2024 in Hirayu, one of the hot spring villages of Okuhida Onsen-gō, at about 1,200 m at the foot of the Northern Alps in Gifu Prefecture. It belongs to KAI, the ryokan brand of the Japanese group Hoshino Resorts. It suits couples or families who want one or two nights of mountains and hot springs after Takayama: 28 rooms have their own hot spring bath on the terrace, and the communal baths have open-air pools.

A small mountain village

The inn is made up of several buildings linked by lanes and a courtyard: two guest buildings, a bathhouse and an annex. In the courtyard, a spring-fed foot bath lets you soak your legs on arrival. The decor draws on Hida crafts: every room is a KAI Signature Room with a Hida Shunkei lacquer panel, cushions dyed using the Hida-zome technique and bentwood chairs by Hida Sangyo, a local furniture maker. The inn runs a bentwood workshop and has a travel library.

Rooms, from the simplest to the suite

All rooms face the Hida mountains and have low beds of 200 × 95 cm, so there are no futons to roll out. The room table gives sizes; to choose:

• Bathing in the communal baths: the TA3 (42 to 44 m², three beds), with a curved-wood headboard, and the FB4 (50 to 53 m², four beds), where the curved headboard rises to the ceiling. Both have a shower and separate toilet.
• Bathing in your room: the RA3 (56 to 58 m², three beds) has an open-air hot spring bath with a daybed beside it and a picture window framing the mountains.
• The suite: the RB3 (68 m², only two of them), on the corner of the top floor of the west wing, with an open-air bath and daybed.

Two rooms accept medium-sized dogs (up to 20 kg, two at most); these stays with a dog are booked from within Japan.

The baths

The Okuhida Onsen-gō spring flows at 440 litres a minute. The communal baths are separated by gender, and each has an indoor and an open-air bath. The etiquette is explained in our onsen etiquette guide.

Dinner built around Hida beef

Dinner is kaiseki (a Japanese meal of many small seasonal courses) built around Hida beef, served at 5.30 pm or 7.30 pm in semi-private dining rooms. Children have their own meals, for ages 4 to 6 and 7 to 11. Breakfast runs from 7.30 to 9.30 am, or 7.15 to 9.15 am depending on the season. Check-in is at 2.30 pm, check-out at 11 am.

Getting there

The inn is at 138 Okuhida Onsen-gō Hirayu, 4 minutes' walk from Hirayu Onsen bus terminal. Buses arrive from Shinjuku in Tokyo in 4 hours 30, from Matsumoto in 1 hour 30 and from Kanazawa in 3 hours 30 via Takayama. By car, JR (Japan Railways) Takayama Station is about 45 minutes away and Shirakawa-gō 90 minutes. In winter, a guest-only shuttle links the inn with Takayama Station and Shirakawa-gō. There is parking on site.

What to do nearby

Okuhida is the mountain side of the Hida region. The Shinhotaka Ropeway, from Shinhotaka Onsen, another Okuhida village, climbs to 2,156 m in two stages, including double-decker cabins, all year round, for 3,800 ¥ (about 22 €) return. Takayama, with its Sanmachi old town, sake breweries and Takayama Jinya, the former shogunate administration office, makes a day trip, as does Shirakawa-gō with its thatched farmhouses. All of this is on our Hida Takayama and Shirakawa-go page. The Japanese Alps and Kanazawa in 10 days itinerary links Takayama with Kanazawa.

In Takayama, the average daily maximum is 3.2 °C in January and 31 °C in August, according to the JMA (Japan Meteorological Agency) normals; Hirayu is higher, at 1,200 m. Pack warm clothes from November to March.

KAI Okuhida or Wanosato

The two ryokan in our Hida selection complement each other. KAI Okuhida is in the mountains, at 1,200 m, with 49 rooms, open-air communal baths, 28 private baths and children of all ages; you come for the baths and the peaks. Wanosato is in the Miya River valley south of Takayama, with four villas and three suites in old houses, indoor communal baths and children from primary-school age; you come for Hida architecture and life around the hearth.