Ryokans for Fugu Season

Our top three picks: Ryokan Hokumon Yashiki in Hagi, with private onsen baths. Miyajima Grand Hotel Arimoto: The winter fugu plan (【冬の味覚期間限定】鮮度抜群！河豚 豪華会席プラン) is for stays from 1 December 2026 to 31 March 2027. Kannawaen in Beppu, with an onsen bath in every room.

Torafugu, the tiger pufferfish, is a winter dinner in western Japan, served at inns from November into March. In Shimonoseki at the western tip of Honshu it is called fuku, the same word as luck, and the city handles more fugu than anywhere else in Japan through its own specialist market. Awaji Island sells its own three-year torafugu from November to February, and on the Bungo Channel off Oita the catch is one of the largest in Japan, with Usuki full of fugu restaurants. The fish is poisonous in parts, so it may be prepared only by a cook the prefecture has licensed to remove them, and inns serve it as a set course: thin sashimi, fried fugu, a hotpot and rice porridge to finish. We have no inn in Shimonoseki, on Awaji or in Usuki, so this list is short: three inns whose own sites publish a torafugu dinner for this winter, in Hagi, on Miyajima and in Beppu.

By Meg Faibisch Kühn · Updated Oct 2026 · How we choose inns