Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami Review: A Great-Value Hot Spring Hotel Stay

“Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami,” in “Atami,” one of Japan’s best-known hot spring towns, offers a 1-night 2-day plan with outstanding value. Here’s a photo report from my stay—to say the least, it was the best♡

“Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami”—a Hot Spring Stay with Outstanding Value

“Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami” in “Atami,” one of Japan’s best-known hot spring towns, belongs to a nationwide hotel and hot spring chain known for consistent quality, good value, and easy stays. Hotel chains can feel the same wherever you go, but “Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami” has features unique to Atami.

“Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami” Stay Report

Going to “Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami”

To see the Atami tourist spot “Omiya and Kanichi,” I headed down Atami’s slope to Atami Sun Beach (the coastline). I wanted to kick “Kanichi, representative of terrible men” who kicked Omiya—but since it’s a bronze statue, my leg would probably hurt more, so I held back. On the way back up the slope, I spotted “Oedo Onsen Monogatari Atami”!

This is it!

It stood above a stone wall. I found myself thinking about climbing it—but what lies beyond that wall is probably the women’s open-air bath! If I made it up and gazed with heart-shaped eyes♡ at beautiful women looking “irresistible♡” in the bath, I’d almost certainly get pushed right back off!

As expected, I couldn’t climb the stone wall, so I tried a detour to the front entrance—but there were two routes to choose from:

“Which is the choice of fate!” I thought—but since “slopes are a strong enemy” for me, I took the flatter blue route. After walking just 5 meters, I realized!

There’s a back entrance!

Entering from the back door, you can take the elevator up to the 5th floor and check in.

Yukata Heaven After the Bath

Oedo Onsen Monogatari has a spacious large public bath plus an open-air bath, so you can soak at a leisurely pace. (The men’s and women’s baths rotate by time slot.)

After your bath, the post-bath lounge is refreshing heaven—thanks to a manga corner that is, in a sense, “heaven”! This is dangerous! I’m torn between reading manga myself or gazing at warm yukata girls reading manga after their bath.

Either way, it’s irresistible♡

It’s a space like Shangri-La.

Dinner: a Buffet with Funamori Alfonsino Sashimi Platter

For dinner, they were running a Funamori Alfonsino Fair as a buffet—all you can eat in the 2 hours from 18:00 to 20:00.

I want to take the whole “ship” home as-is! The sashimi comes in huge portions, and with “Simmered Alfonsino,” “Pasta,” “Steak,” “Tempura,” “Curry Rice,” and even “Mapo Tofu,” it’s the kind of buffet that makes you want to quip, “Is this multinational cuisine?!”

Naturally, I went for the sushi. All-you-can-eat sushi can be a trap where you fill up on sushi alone—but at the Oedo Onsen Monogatari dinner buffet, each piece is pressed relatively small, so even if you dig in smiling like Gal Sone-chan of big-eater fame, you can still eat a fair amount.

If it were Gal Sone-chan, I feel like she’d eat it all up.

Eight pieces of sushi, chicken wings, simmered dishes, sashimi, simmered alfonsino, chawanmushi, tofu, egg tofu, mapo tofu, tempura, steak, fruit, and plenty of white soup—and even eating this much, it’s all-you-can-eat, so the price stays the same.

After this, I definitely cannot step on a weight scale.

The steak was so delicious I finished it in 3 seconds. (Even though Atami means seafood…)

A Japanese-Style Room with “Atami Atmosphere,” All to Myself

For my room, I had a Japanese-style room all to myself. This much space—and no one to complain if I sleep spread-eagled on the tatami! If I flop down like that after drinking, I’ll 100% sleep that way until morning, wake up to unused futons still neatly folded, and end up with a sore body and a hangover—so it’s a dangerous Japanese-style room.

When traveling alone, deciding when to lay out the futon is tricky.

Speaking of Atami, it’s a hot sea—so the ocean view from the inn is wonderful. Relaxing with a drink while gazing out at Atami’s sea is the way to go.

Breakfast is Also Buffet-Style

Breakfast is a buffet on par with a luxury hotel. From bread to rice and curry rice, it’s well stocked. “Gohan no otomo” (rice side dishes) such as “salted squid,” “nametake mushrooms,” and “seasoned nori” are all there—the kind of breakfast that makes you feel like you could polish off several bowls of white rice first thing in the morning.

Let’s eat vegetables too…

Watching Atami’s fireworks from an ocean-view window would be the best! I want to visit wonderful Atami again—easy to reach and easy to enjoy.

Enjoy a nice time in Atami!

Solo Male Traveler’s Atami & Odawara Hot Spring Trip Report (1-Night, 2-Day Journey, May 2021)