8 Best Hotels in The Japan Alps and the North Chubu Coast, Japan

This small ryokan has welcomed guests since 1804 with a strictly traditional experience: 10 large tatami rooms share a single bath and four clean but old-fashioned pit toilets, and the walls are sliding paper screens. Delicately arranged dinners are served in your room (book meals in advance for an extra cost). The ryokan can be booked in English via  www.japaneseguesthouses.com.

Built in the traditional honmune-zukuri style, this hot-springs lodging has a characteristic peaked roof, ornamental woodwork above the front gable, and bow windows. The spacious lobby has crossbeams made from the trunk of a zelkova tree. There are two hot-spring baths: Kikuburo is made of Italian marble with a large carved chrysanthemum, while beniburo has an open-air tub. Ground-floor guest rooms face the garden, and some have private cypress baths. Artfully arranged meals on lacquer trays arrive in your room. The hotel is a 20-minute bus ride from Matsumoto Station to Asama-onsen, which is northeast of the city at the foot of the Utsukushigahara highlands.

The windows in all six tatami rooms of this minshuku face the wooded valley, and although you can opt for a room-only stay, it's only an extra couple of thousand yen to book dinner and breakfast too, which is a good idea with nowhere to eat nearby. The chef prepares local specialties such as horse-meat sashimi, mountain vegetables, but more-familiar Japanese food is also on the menu. There are shared Japanese baths.

Antiques-filled nooks with chairs and coffee tables become cozy lounges in this old Tera-machi minshuku. In the mineral-water baths, a giant waterwheel turns hypnotically, complemented by recorded birdsong. Dinner hours are more flexible than those of the typical minshuku, and the food, including local specialties such as Hida-gyu beef and hobamiso, is superb. The rooms are all Japanese style, but there are no private baths. Yamakyu is east of the Enako-gawa, at the very top of Sanmachi-dori, a 20-minute walk from Takayama Station. There's an 11 pm curfew, but the staff will give you a key if you plan to be out later. Only Visa and MasterCard accepted (no Amex).

Established during the Meiji Restoration (1867), this small ryokan is the most lavish lodging in Kanazawa, and guests come from all over Japan as much for the food (breakfast and dinner are included in the rate) as for the stay. The interior blends traditional elegance with innovative designs—a perfect metaphor for the age of Japan's transition into modernity. Antique furnishings and exquisite scrolls and paintings appear throughout the inn. Superb regional Kaga cuisine is served in your room or in the restaurant.

Before it was upstaged by the bathing monkeys, Kanaguya Ryokan, the town's oldest and grandest traditional inn, was Shibu Onsen's main draw. Kanaguya Ryokan's majestic wooden building dates from the late 18th century and retains a traditional atmosphere both inside and out. Most rooms don't have attached baths (most do have a private toilet), but five of the eight hot-spring baths in the ryokan can be used privately. The ryokan serves locally sourced feasts for dinner and breakfast and also offers a selection of local sake. Attentive kimono-clad service staff make sure your stay is comfortable, and the inn offers morning tours of the source hot spring and the elaborate network of pipes running into the hotel.

This small ryokan in the steamy village of Yudanaka has a hinoki (cypress) bathtub that's continually fed by the hot springs. The rooms are rustic and cozy and (for a small extra fee) come with either a Western or Japanese breakfast. You can try Japanese archery (kyudo) if the owner has free time. The optional dinners feature delicious mountain vegetables and local seafood. It's a seven-minute walk from Yudanaka Station, across the Yomase River and on the left.

In a century-old geisha house in the Eastern Pleasure Quarter, Yogetsu is a small, stylish minshuku. The owner is a welcoming hostess and keeps a neat shared bath. The guest rooms are small and sparsely furnished, but rustic exposed beams add character. Only the second-floor rooms are air-conditioned. A traditional Japanese-style breakfast is included, but the owner is happy to adapt to Western tastes.