JAPAN TODAY


 

TOKYO - During Japan’s Golden Week vacation period, our reporter Seiji Nakawzawa found himself feeling the need to get out of the big city for a while. With the hustle and bustle of Tokyo wearing him down, he decided to take an overnight trip to Atami, a hot spring resort town on the coast of Shizuoka Prefecture, about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo.

 

However, since he’d put off making plans until the last minute, Seiji braced himself for astronomical hotel rates, especially since he was looking for a room on the last Friday night of Golden Week. So imagine his surprise when he found a hotel with its own outdoor hot spring, and dinner included, charging just 8,574 yen for him to stay the night.

 

So Seiji made his reservation and rode the train to Atami. Once there, he hopped on a shuttle bus that took him into the main part of the town, and after a short walk from the bus stop, found himself in front of the Uomisaki Hotel.

▼ The hotel is across the street from a seaside park that borders the bay.

 

First things first: The Uomisaki Hotel is not a new or fancy hotel. In fact, the whole place has a very late '80s, early '90s vibe, and the interior is sort of dingy. Somehow, though, the old-school atmosphere filled Seiji with a retro-relaxed sense of calm as he sat in his mixed Japanese/Western-style room and stood on its veranda, almost as though he’d come to a vacation home he’d bought during the boom times of Japan’s bubble economy.

But really, it’s not the rooms that make the Uomisaki Hotel a great place to stay, but rather everything else. That included dinner we talked about? It’s actually an all-you-can-eat buffet, and until the end of May, it includes an unlimited amount of crab.

 

There’s also all-you-can-eat sushi, karaage fried chicken, curry, tempura, hamburger steak, yakisoba stir-fried noodles, salad, and desserts.

 

And if you’re more focused on beverages than food, you’ll also be happy to know that the buffet features all-you-can-drink alcohol such as Asahi Super Dry draft beer and whiskey highballs.

Like we said, Atami is an onsen town, and the hotel features two hot spring baths. The indoor one is located on the eight floor, but the real star is the rooftop outdoor bath, which offers gorgeous views of the surrounding sea, city, and mountains (see top photo).

 

So while it might seem a little weird to strongly recommend a hotel despite having extremely average rooms, all of the other amenities combined to create an extremely enjoyable, and affordable, stay.

 

Hotel information
Uomisaki Hotel / ウオミサキホテル
Address: Shizuoka-ken, Atami-shi, Wadahama Minamicho 7-2
静岡県熱海市和田浜南町7-2
Telephone 0557-86-2211