Gora Kadan, Hakone: A Night of Stone Baths and Stillness
A former imperial villa, now one of Japan's most refined ryokan. Stone baths carved from the hillside, kaiseki served in silence, and the particular solitude of Hakone.
Eisuke Kameta
March 14, 2026
Solo Score
★★★★☆
Budget
From ¥80,000 per person (two meals)
Access
Hakone Tozan Railway Gora Station, then cable car or taxi
The cable car climbs above Gora station. The town below recedes into forest. At the top, a wooden gate and stepping stones. Gora Kadan moves at the pace of the building — unhurried.
This property was once an imperial villa. In the 1950s it became a ryokan. The bones remain: low ceilings, wide verandas, rooms that open to the garden.
The Baths
Seven baths. At 6 a.m. the large outdoor bath is quiet. Stone, grey-green water, birds. A single towel on the basin’s edge. No music.
The bath carved deepest into the hillside is available for private booking — a long stone corridor leading to a room of steam and silence.
The Meal
Dinner in one of the small private dining rooms: a table for one by the window, garden lanterns outside. Eight courses, each precise. The soup stock was clear with a depth difficult to describe. The final course was Wagyu, barely touched by heat, placed on a warmed stone.
On Staying Alone
Gora Kadan accepts solo guests without a supplement. What you receive for that price is space, service, and an atmosphere of a building that has been treated well for seventy years.
Hakone in autumn, at this altitude, is cold. Steam from the outdoor bath drifts into dark trees.