"By Day It Looks Derelict, at Night the Lights Come On": What Japanese Visitors Say About Atagawa Onsen

What Japanese visitors said — picked from the top 200 of 968 comments

• It isn't what it was in the bubble years, but Atagawa still has plenty of facilities and hotels doing fine. On the day of the Atagawa fireworks the hotel rooms with a view of them fill up immediately, to the point where they're hard to book. As the video mentions, the pipes here clog easily so keeping the hot spring going apparently costs money, and the very fact that they pay to maintain that equipment is proof that enough sightseers and bathers come to make the upkeep pay. In our house my wife likes crocodiles and reptiles so we go to Atagawa once or twice a year, and with the kinmedai and the other seafood being good and several different spring qualities to enjoy, I think it's a good place to travel to. In summer you can swim in the sea too.

  バブル期程ではありませんが、熱川にはまだまだ元気な施設やホテルがありますよ。熱川花火大会の日には花火が見えるホテルの部屋は直ぐに満室になってしまい、予約が取りにくい程。 動画の中でも触れている通り、熱川の温泉は配管が詰まりやすいため温泉の維持には費用が掛かるそうですが、その温泉設備を費用を掛けて維持している時点で、少なくともその維持費がペイする以上の観光客や湯治客が訪れている証拠です。 我が家では妻がワニや爬虫類が好きなので年に1〜2回は熱川に行きますが、金目鯛や海鮮類も美味しくて温泉も複数の泉質が楽しめる、良い旅先だと思います。夏は海水浴も楽しめますよ。

  — @kazucenturion7626126 likes

• Around March this year I stayed at the Atagawa Prince Hotel. There certainly weren't many guests, but that made it quiet, the food was good, and I could take it easy. The server who brought the dishes was a young woman from overseas, and it was endearing how hard she tried to explain the difficult dishes in halting Japanese. I'd like to go again.

  今年の3月頃、熱川プリンスホテルに泊まりました。たしかにお客さんは少なかったですが、その分静かだし、お料理も美味しくて、のんびり過ごすことが出来ました。 お料理を出してくださる仲居さんが若い外国人の女の子で、難しい料理の説明をたどたどしい日本語で一生懸命してくれたのが微笑ましかったです。 また行きたいと思います。

  — @ぼんぼん1129Most liked316 likes

• There is almost nowhere in Atagawa to eat out.

  熱川には外食できるところがほとんどない。

  — @相田豊-d1h32 likes

• In February I went to see the Kawazu cherry blossoms, and since all the reasonably priced places were full I stayed at the Ito-en Hotel Atagawa, two stops away on the Izukyu line. At 9,200 yen for a night with dinner and breakfast, tax included, it was very reasonable, and the lobby inside was even lavish. In the room the washbasin was peeling away from the wall a little and there were places where maintenance hasn't kept up, but the hotel was comfortable enough. There were at least 25 people at the dinner and breakfast buffets, so it was nowhere near dead. 　Perhaps because the kind of guest who visits on a company trip has declined, the snack bars in Atagawa are still more or less wiped out, and since you can reach the Izu Islands by ferry from Inatori, the next station, Inatori may well be the more convenient of the two. But it's a compact town, so for a single night where you arrive in the evening, have dinner, have breakfast the next morning and take it easy until checkout, I think it's a town you can enjoy plenty. If guests spent an hour and a half between dinner and breakfast visiting a snack bar or two, it might get lively again little by little.

  2月に河津桜を見に行きましたが、手頃な宿が全て埋まってしまっていたので、伊豆急で2駅の伊東園熱川ホテルに泊まりました。1泊2食で9200円 (観光税込) と非常に手頃な金額で、且つ館内もロビーは豪華でした。宿泊部屋では洗顔台が壁から少し剥がれかかっていたり、ややメンテナンスが追い付いていない面も見られましたが、ホテルは十分快適でしたね。夕食・朝食のバイキングには25人はいたので、閑古鳥では全くなかったと思います。 　熱川は会社の慰安旅行で訪問するような客が減っているからか、スナックなどはほぼ壊滅したままで、隣駅の稲取はフェリーで伊豆諸島に行けるので、利便性は稲取の方が確実に高いかも知れないです。ただコンパクトな町なので、夕方到着・夕食・翌朝食・チェックアウト時間までのんびり過ごすといった1泊なら、十分に楽しめる町だと思います。夕食・翌朝食の間に宿泊客が1時間半、スナック訪問などしてくれたら、また少しづつにぎやかになるのでは。

  — @riuUC28 likes

• I stayed at Hotel Cetus Royal a few months ago and it was superb. It was 9,900 yen per person. Nice sea view, especially good if you like a drink: at check-in there's free-flowing alcohol in the lobby, free, and you swim in the pool and there's free-flowing alcohol in the lounge, free. The open-air bath is supposed to be good too but I was too unsteady to get in. Looks like Joe of Nishinari stayed here as well.

  ホテルセタスロイヤルに数ヶ月前泊まりましたが最高でした。 １人9900円でした。 海の眺めNice、アルコール好きは特に良い、チェックインでロビーでアルコール飲み放題→無料、プールで泳いでラウンジでアルコールが飲み放題→無料、露天風呂もいいらしいけどふらふらだったので入れなかった 西成のジョーさんも泊まったみたい。

  — @加藤保憲-h2e51 likes

• The other day I stayed in a room with an open-air bath at Atagawa Heights. The water quality at Atagawa Onsen is wonderfully good. I drove past the station and along the coast. I parked by the sea and walked a little. There are a lot of abandoned hotels. There were a lot of stray cats too. I got nostalgic thinking how the summer holidays in the Showa era must have been busy with people swimming. The park along the shore has a foot bath and a reflexology path, and the red pier and the red lanterns are still attractive as photo spots. The Banana Wani Garden had a lot of cars in the parking lot so it seems to still be popular. It really is a hot spring town with plenty of water bubbling up all over the place. I think the sticking point for Atagawa is probably the geography, that it's a bit far from Tokyo. Hakone, Atami and Ito must have taken its customers. I think it's a hot spring town with very high potential. Atagawa Heights was good so I'm planning to go to Atagawa again. Good water, quiet and calm, it's a hot spring town I like.

  先日熱川ハイツの露天風呂付きの部屋に泊まりました。熱川温泉の泉質は最高に気持ちよいですよ。 車で駅前、海岸沿いを通りました。海岸沿いで車をとめて少し散歩をしました。廃ホテル多いですね。野良猫も沢山いました。昭和の夏休みはきっと海水浴客で賑わったのだろうなとノスタルジーな気持ちになりました。 海岸沿いの公園には足湯や足裏健康通路があったり、赤い桟橋や赤い提灯はフォトスポットとして今でも魅力的だと思います。バナナワニ園は駐車場に沢山車がとまっていたので今も人気なようです。 本当にあちらこちらから温泉が湧き出している湯量たっぷりな温泉街でした。 おそらく熱川は東京からちょっと遠いという地理的条件がネックかなと思います。箱根、熱海、伊東にお客さんが取られてしまったのでしょう。ポテンシャルはとても高い温泉地だと思います。熱川ハイツが良かったのでまた熱川に行こうと思っています。泉質がよくて静かで落ち着いていて私は好きな温泉地です。

  — @見太満間25 likes

• Looking at the hot spring towers you can see from the platform at Atagawa, the volume and the heat both look abundant, it feels like this is what a hot spring should be, and taking in the terrain and the setting I'd call it a place full of hot spring town atmosphere, but I had no idea it had declined this far, gone to ruin, really. Taken as a whole I think it has the potential to be far more popular. If something set redevelopment going it might change completely into a brand new resort, but that would feel bland in its own way. I thought there's something to be said for enjoying this faded hot spring town while it's still early. Either way, I hope life comes back to the place and the area prospers. Thank you for a video worth watching.

  熱川のホームから見える温泉櫓をみると、湯量も熱量も豊富そうで これぞ温泉！という感じで、地形や環境も含め温泉地情緒に溢れる 温泉と思いますが、ここまで廃れて（むしろ荒廃して）いるとは 思いませんでした。 総合的に見てもっと流行ってよさそうなポテンシャルはあると思う んですけどね。何かのきっかけで再開発が進めばガラリと変わって 真新しいリゾート地に変わるなんてこともあるかもしれないが、 それはそれで味気ない気がしています。早いうちにこの鄙びた温泉地を 堪能しておくのも悪くないと思いました。 どうあれ、この地に活気が戻り地域が潤うことを願っています。 見ごたえのある動画、ありがとうございます。

  — @MItoh-fw7fc33 likes

• When I was young I stayed at the kokumin shukusha by the station, and one night there cured my stiff shoulders It was strange I'd heard Atagawa Onsen has very abundant water, the most in Izu, but I didn't know it was the most in Japan

  若い頃に駅前の国民宿舎に泊まり､1泊2日で肩こりが治りました 不思議でした 熱川温泉はお湯がとても豊富で伊豆で一番と聞きましたが 日本一だったとは

  — @バルゴンの虹29 likes

• In the bubble years this was an area where apartments costing hundreds of millions of yen a unit were being supplied. With Atami in the spotlight now, depending on the timing I don't think it would be strange for this area to have another moment on the back of inbound travel.

  バブル期には一戸数億円のマンションが供給されていた地域です。熱海が脚光されている今、タイミングによればインバウンドの影響から再ブレイクしてもおかしくない地域と思います。

  — @杉山明-u4u184 likes

• I went about ten years ago and enjoyed it The hard part is that there isn't even a supermarket Rather than letting them rot as ruins, converting them into apartment blocks or something might be all right

  10年前位に行きましたが楽しめました スーパーすらないのが辛いです 廃墟として腐らせるくらいならマンションとかに転換しても良いかもしれません

  — @rts354337 likes

• There really are few places to eat in Atagawa Years ago I was hungry but nothing was open, and at the place I finally found I ordered curry and they made a Bon Curry retort pouch in front of me and charged 1,500 yen With a cola and the Bon Curry I think it came to 2,000 yen in total I think it was run by an old man and woman around eighty I thought, this is no good 😂

  熱川は食べるところ少ないですね 昔、お腹空いたけど開いてる店なくてやっとみつけたお店でカレー頼んだら 目の前でボンカレー作られて代金1500円でした コーラとボンカレーで合計2000円だったかな 80歳くらいのじいさんとばあさんでやってる店だった気がする こりゃだめだと思いました😂

  — @yukihide684712 likes

• The Banana Wani Garden is thriving Go on, Waniko

  バナナワニ園は盛況 ワニ子さんがんばれ

  — @suncamera168 likes

• The fruit parfait at the Atagawa Banana Wani Garden was good. Fully ripe bananas aren't something you get to taste often. I wonder if visitors would come back if it became the kind of lodging where you can fish and do things like that. As it is now it's too forlorn.

  熱川バナナワニ園のフルーツパフェは美味しかったな。 完熟のバナナはなかなか味わえませんでした。 釣りなどが出来る体験型の宿泊施設になれば観光客も戻るのかな。 今のままでは寂しすぎます。

  — @たかちゃん-x6e87 likes

• We've been visiting on family trips for more than fifty five years. I went again two years ago and there were a lot of closed facilities. Many of the hotels still operating were bought as they stood by groups like Ito-en.

  55年以上前から家族旅行で訪れていました。2年前にも行きましたが、廃施設多かったです。営業しているホテルは、居抜きで伊東園グループ等が買収したもの多いです。

  — @こうせい-x3k18 likes

• Forty years ago I worked part-time at Atagawa station. Every time the Odoriko arrived a lot of tourists got off. I can picture the staff with flags bearing hotel names in front of the ticket gates, guiding people to the bus stop.

  40年前熱川駅でバイトしてました。踊り子号が到着するたび多くの観光客が降車してました。改札前にはホテル名の旗をもった従業員がバス乗り場まで案内していた光景が思い浮かびます。

  — @唐沢澪112 likes

• Atagawa isn't that derelict, surely. The limited express stops there. The big loud parrot sort of bird at the Wani Garden was fun. And Sakurazaka pulls a decent crowd. Though if I'm staying the night I wouldn't pick a place in Atagawa, Hokkawa is good.

  熱川そこまで廃墟じゃないでしょ。 特急停まるし。 ワニ園のでっかいうるさいオウムみたいなの面白かった。 あとさくら坂は結構集客してる。 ただ泊まるなら熱川の宿はないかな、北川良い。

  — @ペキポメのメルペキプーのモカ19 likes

• 9:52 The left side is the site of the Daitokan fire. We had it on our list for a family trip at the time and it burned in February, which was a real shock. Over the spring holidays, late March, we stayed at another hotel in Atagawa, and I still remember putting my hands together in front of the burned remains of the Daitokan. The wooden pillars, charred completely black, were still there, so I think it had been left almost as it was.

  9:52 左側は「大東館」の火災現場です 当時、家族旅行の候補に入れてたら2月に火事になってとても驚きました。 春休み(3月下旬)に熱川の別のホテルに泊まり、大東館の焼け跡の前で手を合わせたのを今でも覚えています。 真っ黒に炭化した木の柱がまだ残っていて、ほとんどそのままだったんだと思います。

  — @me23341710 likes

• The company had a lodge there and until a few years ago we went several times a year as a family. In front of the station there were souvenir shops, a dried fish shop and places to eat, but a few years after we started going they closed, turned into parking lots, and the shooting gallery that used to open from the evening had closed by seven or eight years ago. Along the road that runs above, prefectural or national I'm not sure which, more businesses had shut every time we went, which is nothing but sad. Since even eating is a problem, for the last few years we used Atagawa as a base and spent our time between Ito and Shimoda. You could call it a second home, for the family memories it grew for us. It's made me want to go back after all this time. Thank you for the video.

  会社の保養所があり、数年前まで毎年数回、家族と行ってました。 駅前もお土産屋、干物屋、食事処がありましたが、行き始めて数年後には閉店、駐車場になったり、射的屋は、夕方からやっていたのが、7、８年前には閉店されてた。 上を走る、県道？国道？も行くたびに廃業が増え、なんとも寂しい限りです。 食事にも困るので、後半の数年は、熱川を拠点に伊東〜下田間を遊ぶ感じでした。 家族との思い出を育んでくれた第二の故郷とも言えます。久しぶりに行ってみたくなりました。 動画ありがとうございました。

  — @光影-e5x95 likes

• I like Atagawa and go often. Visitors from abroad have increased lately, but for someone who dislikes crowds it's quiet and nostalgic and I really do love the place. Saying that because the people are poor the cats are poor too is going too far, isn't it. The food is good, and after bathing in Atagawa Onsen a bruise on my leg that hadn't gone away in two years disappeared. I hear there are children whose atopy cleared up as well. I do think the effects of a hot spring suit some people and not others. The slopes are steep, but walking around the town doing the seven lucky gods circuit is fun too. The botanical garden at the Banana Wani Garden is soothing as well, and I think it's a place that will click with people who like this kind of atmosphere.

  熱川好きでよく行きます。最近は外国の観光客も増えてきましたが人混み嫌いにとっては静かでノスタルジックで本当に大好きな場所です。 人が貧しいから、猫も貧しいっていうのは言葉が過ぎませんか。 食事もおいしいし熱川温泉に入って2年消えなかった足のあざが消えました。アトピーが治ったお子さんもいるそうです。 温泉の効果は人により合う・合わないがあると思いますが。坂がきついけど七福神めぐりつつ街をさんぽするのも楽しいです。 バナナワニ園の植物園も癒されますし…こういう雰囲気が好きな人にははまる場所だと思います。

  — @maytac704932 likes

• SaveAtagawa Banana & Crocodile Garden↗熱川バナナワニ園Higashiizu, Shizuoka

  The one attraction the thread agrees is still thriving (168 likes), with a parking lot full of cars (25 likes) and a fruit parlour remembered for parfaits made with fully ripened bananas (87 likes). Open 9:00 to 17:00, last entry 16:30, no closing days, 2,000 yen for adults and 1,000 yen for children, one minute on foot from Izu-Atagawa station, and home to 16 species of crocodile.

  Sources: bananawani.jp — checked 2026-08-25

• SaveAtagawa Prince Hotel↗熱川プリンスホテルAtagawa Onsen, Higashiizu

  The hotel behind the most-liked stay report in the thread: few other guests in March, which made it quiet, good food and an easy pace (316 likes).

• SaveHotel Cetus Royal↗ホテルセタスロイヤルAtagawa Onsen, Higashiizu

  Named by a guest who paid 9,900 yen per person a few months before writing, for a sea view and free-flowing drinks in the lobby at check-in and in the lounge by the pool (51 likes).

• SaveIto-en Hotel Atagawa↗伊東園ホテル熱川Atagawa Onsen, Higashiizu

  The 9,200 yen room with dinner and breakfast, tax included, that a February visitor took when the reasonably priced places were full. Maintenance is patchy in the rooms, but there were at least 25 people at the buffets (28 likes).

• SaveAtagawa Heights↗熱川ハイツAtagawa Onsen, Higashiizu

  Where a recent guest took a room with its own open-air bath and called the water quality wonderful, enough to plan a return (25 likes).

• SaveIzu no Ajidokoro Nishiki↗伊豆の味処 錦By Izu-Atagawa station

  The seafood restaurant a visitor names for a kaisendon eaten this spring, with a steaming hot spring tower standing right in front of it (10 likes).

• SaveHokkawa Onsen↗北川温泉Higashiizu, Shizuoka

  One dissenter says Atagawa is not that derelict, the limited express stops there and the Wani Garden is fun, but that for a night's sleep he would pick Hokkawa, the next hot spring down the coast (19 likes).

Named in the source comments. Where a note gives a price, opening status or rule, we checked it against the linked source on the date shown — everything else is what the comments said. All of it can change; check the map listing before you go.

Is Atagawa Onsen worth visiting?

Yes for the bath and the quiet, no if you expect a town to eat and drink your way through. A guest who stayed at the Atagawa Prince in March says there were few other guests, which made it quiet, and the food was good (316 likes). Against that sits a flat statement nobody argues with: there is almost nowhere in Atagawa to eat out (32 likes). Book a room with dinner and breakfast and the trip works. Arrive planning to wander for a restaurant and it does not.

Can you eat out in Atagawa?

Barely, and this is the one complaint everybody agrees on. A regular whose company kept a lodge there lists the souvenir shops, the dried fish shop and the places to eat by the station closing one after another, with the shooting gallery gone seven or eight years ago (95 likes). One visitor says there is not even a supermarket (37 likes), and another corrects him: there are two, but both are a good way from the station and up the hill (14 likes). The story people remember is the man who finally found somewhere open and was served a retort pouch curry, made in front of him, for 1,500 yen (12 likes). One seafood place by the station, Nishiki, gets a straight recommendation (10 likes).

What is there to do in Atagawa?

The Banana Wani Garden, the water, and a walk. The garden is a minute from Izu-Atagawa station, open 9:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, every day of the year, at 2,000 yen for adults and 1,000 yen for children, and it keeps 16 species of crocodile warm on hot spring heat. The town itself has 13 hot spring towers venting steam over the streets from sources near boiling point, and the Odoriko limited express runs to it direct from Tokyo and Shinjuku. Visitors add the seaside foot bath and reflexology path, the red pier as a photo spot (25 likes), the seven lucky gods walk up the slopes (32 likes), swimming in summer and the fireworks night, when rooms with a view sell out (126 likes).

Sources: bananawani.jp · media.jreast.co.jp — checked 2026-08-25

Why are so many hotels in Atagawa closed?

Because its customers were the bubble economy and the company trip. Apartments here went for hundreds of millions of yen a unit in the bubble years (184 likes), the corporate lodges and group outings that filled the big hotels stopped coming (95 likes), and a visitor of more than fifty five years says most of the hotels still trading were bought as they stood by groups like Ito-en (18 likes). One visitor's own theory is geography, that Atagawa is a bit too far from Tokyo, so Hakone, Atami and Ito took the customers (25 likes).