御池ロッジ

Mountain lodge run by Hinoemata Village, standing inside the Miike car park on Route 352 in Minamiaizu District, Fukushima Prefecture. It is the gateway into Oze from the Fukushima side: the trailheads for Hiuchigatake and the Hiuchi-ura forest road are at the back of the car park, and the shuttle bus for Numayama Pass leaves from in front of the neighbouring Yama-no-Eki Miike. The lodge sleeps 60 in 19 rooms, from six- to fourteen-mat Japanese rooms to western-style rooms with beds and their own toilet, and unusually for a mountain hut every room has a washbasin. Since 2022 it has run as a B&B with a light breakfast and no dinner, breakfast being a choice of rice balls or bread. Guests may bring their own food and cook in the dining room's kitchen, where an induction hob, microwave, kettle, frying pan, chopsticks and plates are free to use, and the shop stocks frozen meals such as beef bowls, short-rib bowls and pasta. There are separate men's and women's baths looking out over the Sumotori-tashiro marsh where skunk cabbage blooms, generous shower places, a drying room, a lounge with a fireplace and a coin-operated washing machine, which makes the lodge useful for multi-night stays and traverses taking in Aizu-Komagatake or Hiragatake. Check-in is 14:00 to 19:00 and checkout 8:00, and guests may use the lodge's own car park free of charge.