The hillside drops sharply toward the water, and the streets of Atami follow no sensible grid — they curl, switchback, and dead-end at walls of cut stone. At the base of it all, steam still rises from the ground in places, the city built around its own heat rather than despite it. Atami Onsen has fed this town for centuries, and the weight of that fact is visible in the layered architecture: old ryokan facades pressed between modern hotel towers, a shared bathhouse near the station still used by locals on weekday evenings.
Up the slope toward Izusan, the atmosphere changes. The Izusan Jinja sits near the source of Hashiriyu, where water emerges horizontally from a coastal cave — a rare geological phenomenon that drew pilgrims long before the resort hotels arrived. Kinokuniya Shrine is another register entirely: the camphor tree at Kinomiya Jinja, its trunk so wide it takes many arms to encircle, has been growing here since before the town had a name. The MOA Museum of Art, positioned high above the bay, holds a different kind of accumulation — centuries of lacquerwork and ceramics housed where the view itself is part of the experience.
Down at the fishing harbors of Ajiro and Usami, the catch still comes in. Dried fish — himono — hangs in shop doorways along the approach to the station, salt and sea air mixing with the sulfur that never quite leaves Atami's streets. The Atami Kaijo Hanabi Taikai sends fireworks over the bay in a natural amphitheater of surrounding hills, the sound bouncing back off the slopes. Atami is a place that has always been used: for rest, for ritual, for the particular pleasure of eating well near the water.
Where to stay
A day is rarely enough.
Booking through these links supports AURA at no extra cost to you.
What converges here
4 in this city. 33 within 25 km of the city hall.
- Atami Yamaguchi Museum
- Atami Trick Art Museum
- Atami Castle
- MOA Museum of Art
- Nishimura Kyotaro Museum
See the nearest 25
- Yugawara Art Museum
- Nakagawa Kazumasa Art Museum
- Kannami Buddha Statues Museum
- Hakone Ekiden Museum
- Narukawa Art Museum
- Izunokuni History Museum
- Sano Art Museum
- Rakuju-en
- Mishima City Local Museum
- Okada Museum of Art
- Yoneyama Umekichi Memorial Hall
- Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Natural History
- Hakone Open-Air Museum
- Hakone Museum of Art
- Odawara Literature Museum
- Matsunaga Memorial Hall
- Numazu Imperial Villa Memorial Park
- Pola Museum of Art
- Hotoku Museum
- Serizawa Kojiro Memorial Museum
- Hakone Venetian Glass Museum
- Numazu City Archives of Meiji History
- Ikeda Museum of 20th Century Art
- Shuzenji Niji no Sato
- Lalique Museum, Hakone
Distances are straight-line from the municipal office. Each website was checked in September 2026. Some locations © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Great Camphor Tree of Azusawake Shrine
- Former Hyuga Family Atami Villa Underground Room
- Fuji-Hakone-Izu
- Atami Onsen
- Izusan Onsen
- Izu Yugawara Onsen
- Mount Kurodake
- Atami
- Atami
- Atami
- Atami
- Izu-Taga
- Kinomiya
- Ajiro
- Ajiro Fishing Port
- Usami Fishing Port