Atami, Japan (2025)
When planning this trip, we wanted to give ourselves a day to relax between our visits to Osaka and Tokyo. One city that came up in our brief research was the seaside town of Atami. It’s less than an hour on the Shinkansen from Tokyo, so locals would go there for weekend trips, or even day trips just to get away from the busy city. And then I discovered that there were some cool looking ryokan there, so we decided to spend one night in Atami.
Getting there from Osaka is also really easy because there’s a stop at Atami station on the Shinkansen; you just need to make sure you’re on the right train that stops there. Since we were arriving on a Saturday morning, when we disembarked at Atami station, we were greeted with the many others who were arriving for the weekend. It made getting out of the station a bit chaotic, but eventually we made it out unscathed.
We were early to check-in to our ryokan, Atami Kaihorou, but we were told that we could drop off our bags. It was a short 8 minute walk to get there from the station, so off we went. They also offer free transportation from the station during the afternoon, but we were arriving too early to take advantage of that. As an alternative, they did offer to pay for the taxi ride to the ryokan, but since the walk was so short, we opted to walk instead. However, we were appreciative of their gesture to provide transportation, even if we didn’t use it.
After dropping off our bags, it was time to find some lunch. Since Atami is on the water, many of the restaurants and stalls focus heavily on seafood and fish bowls. This is immediately evident when walking down one of the shopping streets leading out of the station:
Many shops on these streets were selling dried fish snacks, and it appeared that they were hand drying them on these racks. Neither of us were in the mood to eat them though, so we kept walking down to the water. On the way there, we walked past a cool looking restaurant that offered a set menu with various fried seafood to choose from. Since we weren’t really in the mood for raw fish bowls, we decided to try them out for lunch. They even offer a foot bath area in the front for those who need to rejuvenate their feet from walking:
We were fortunate that there was no wait when we arrived, so we were quickly shown to a table. The interior was modern, with exposed concrete columns, sleek white walls, and pretty plants.
We were given English menus explaining the various set menu options. Each set comes with one drink, rice, soup, salad, and an appetizer plate, along with our choice of a main dish. I can’t remember all of the options, but Nick chose the fried salmon, and I chose the mixed fried seafood platter. I wish I kept the receipt because if I remember correctly, with the exchange rate at the time we visited, I think the set menu was less than $20 each. Everything was delicious and wonderfully prepared—we were shocked at how affordable it was!
After that delicious lunch, we were off to get more food: pudding! So one of the most popular items in Atami is pudding from a place called Atami Purin. They have two locations, one that’s close to the station and the second location that’s next to the beach. The one by the station is always busy because it’s so close, but since we went to the beach area, the second location had no line.
The display case showed the various options that you could take home with you, like pudding in glass jars:
But at the store, you could also order specialties like a pudding parfait, which we had to try. It comes with the original pudding, topped with soft serve and cookies in a cute, rectangular cup. We were actually still quite full from lunch, but with our powers combined, we were able to finish the small parfait:
With our stomachs extremely stuffed with food, it was time to walk it off, so we wandered around the area, slowly making our way to the beach. The town is super cute, with some interesting art in the area and on the beach:
It was refreshing to walk along the ocean and enjoying the statues and sculptures along the way. On a sunnier and warmer day, I could see how Atami would be so popular for those wanting to escape the city. However, we only had one day in the city, so we had to quickly taxi over to our next stop, the MOA Museum of Art. It’s located at the top of the hill, which is why the only recommended ways to get there are by bus, car, or taxi.
After paying for our tickets, we were immediately greeted by a long escalator:
And then we got to the top of that escalator, only to see another long escalator:
And then there were more escalators…I think there were four in total. Eventually, we made it to the top and walked outside to an amazing view of Atami and the bay:
We headed up a few more stairs and headed into the main part of the museum to see their main exhibit focusing on works by Katsushika Hokusai, the artist who painted the famous Hokusai wave. One of the cool things the exhibit was doing was showing an original painting by Hokusai of Mt. Fuji and a contemporary photo of that same area the painting was depicting:
That appeared to be the main exhibit of the museum. We walked around and saw a few other things, like their outdoor garden and reconstructions of Edo style homes:
There are also multiple food options at the museum, but we definitely didn’t need more food, especially because we would be having dinner at the ryokan. Speaking of which, it was time for us to head back to the ryokan to check-in.
One of the reasons we chose Atami Kaihourou was because it’s small with only four rooms total. Also, the architecture was cool and modern with concrete and glass everywhere. You’re immediately greeted with the sleek aesthetics the moment you walk through the entrance:
We booked one of the suites for a few reasons. First, it had an amazing view of the bay. Second, there was a private outdoor bath that we could use. And third, it gave us the option to have a meal (either breakfast or dinner) at their famous water balcony, which I’ll get to later. After checking-in and confirming meal times, we were shown to our room and it was amazing!
We were sad that we only had one night here…
We used the outdoor pool and rested a bit before our dinner, which we opted to have served to our room. First, we were given our menu and drink options:
Soon afterwards, our appetizer course arrived, and it was a glorious presentation of various small items:
This was followed by the rest of the menu, which included soup, sashimi, hot pot, rice, and dessert. All were delicious and exquisitely prepared:
After dinner, we headed to their onsen, which you can book for private use as a guest of the ryokan. It was nice to enjoy the hot springs after a long day of traveling and walking. Nick wasn’t used to the heat of the water, but with enough dipping in the cold pool, he managed to sit in hot pool for a bit. Once our hour was up, we headed back to our room to call it a night.
The next morning, we headed to the water balcony for our breakfast. So the water balcony (and this ryokan) were designed by a famous architect, Kengo Kuma, and it’s basically an oval shaped space enclosed by class, and floating on water overlooking the bay:
As a guest of one of the two suites, you can choose to have dinner there, but only one of the suites can be served there at night. Unfortunately for us, the other suite had booked it before us. However, both suites can use the water balcony for breakfast, so we definitely chose to do that.
We changed into our yukata and were greeted by one of the hotel staff at the entrance to the water balcony. She showed us to the table and soon started coming over with our breakfast. I don’t know if there were options for breakfast, but we both had the Japanese breakfast, which I would have opted for anyway. Needless to say, we wouldn’t leave the ryokan hungry:
After our wonderful breakfast, we needed to pack up and head to the station to catch our train to Tokyo. The ryokan had a taxi waiting for us to take us to the station (which they had already paid for), and after saying goodbye, we were off to spend the next few nights in Tokyo!