Haranokoya

Mountain lodge at Miharashi (Shimotashiro Crossroads), the cluster of six huts at the eastern end of the Ozegahara marsh in Hinoemata Village, Minamiaizu District, Fukushima Prefecture. The gabled main building was put up in 1958 by craftsmen from Hinoemata and has been in business for more than sixty years, still in its original form. The ground floor holds reception, a lobby shop, a dining room of about thirty seats, a lounge, a drying room, the bath, toilets and a washroom; guest rooms are upstairs, with 28 private rooms based on six-mat tatami plus separate men's and women's shared rooms. There are two baths, large and small, open from around 15:30 until dinner, the lounge has satellite TV, books and a hot tea service, and free KDDI Wi-Fi reaches the building. The entrance doubles as Hara-no-koya Cafe, serving espresso drinks, waffles and Aizu cotton goods and mountain badges to anyone passing through, while the ground floor of the annex is a free rest house open to all from 8:00 to 17:00. Set at the foot of Hiuchigatake amid old beech forest, the lodge is about 2h30m one way from Numajiri, 1h30m from Sanjo Falls and roughly four hours from the summit of Hiuchigatake by the Miharashi-shindo route. From the Gunma side it is about 35 minutes by shared bus or taxi from the Togura car parks to Hatomachi Pass and then some three hours on foot across Ozegahara; from the Fukushima side the starting point is Oze Miike, about 1h35m by Aizu Bus from Aizu-Kogen-Ozeguchi Station.