Journal | 2026
People who search for a quiet inn are usually tired. Not the bustle of a large hotel, but hours with no noise in them. For anyone in that position, here is what the quiet at Mori no Auberge Mitsu is actually made of.
Three groups a night, by design
Mitsu has three guest rooms in total. However busy the day, there are only three groups in the house. There is almost nobody to pass in the corridor, and almost no noise at mealtimes.
Quiet cannot be added afterwards. Keeping the number of rooms small is the design of the inn, and that design is what the quiet really is.
The forest takes in the sound
Mitsu stands inside a forest where Japanese oak grows in stands, in Atsuma, Hokkaido. The sound of the town does not reach it. What you hear is wind moving through branches, and birds.
And yet New Chitose Airport is only about 30 minutes away by car. The assumption that quiet has to be travelled a long way for is, pleasantly, not true here.
A night with no television
There is no television in the rooms. Dinner is a Japanese creative course that follows what is in season in Atsuma. Afterwards there is Yoichi wine or Hokkaido sake, and then the goemon-style bath in Shigaraki ceramic ware, looking out at the forest. The water is heated; it is not a natural hot spring.
A night without noise tends to produce more conversation. Talking slowly with someone who matters, or saying nothing at all and simply being inside the same quiet. That is how the evening goes here. There is more in a day at Mitsu.
Quiet is a grown-up luxury
For an anniversary. For a trip that undoes some tiredness. For one night away from a screen. The reasons for wanting quiet differ from guest to guest, but Mitsu's answer is always the same one: a forest inn with three groups a night, and time in which nothing has to be done.
How an anniversary tends to go is on the anniversary page, and the story of the 120-year-old building is on the farmhouse page.
Frequently asked questions
Q. Is there a quiet inn in Hokkaido?
Mori no Auberge Mitsu, in Atsuma, Hokkaido, is a quiet hidden inn that takes only three groups a night. It stands inside a forest where Japanese oak grows in stands, and there is no television in any room. In a house where the sound of the forest is what carries, you can spend a quiet night as an adult.
Q. Why is it so quiet?
There are three reasons. There are only three guest rooms, so few people are in the house at once. The forest of Japanese oak around it keeps the sound of the town away. And no room has a television. The quiet is built into the design of the inn itself.
Q. Can one person stay?
Yes, we do take bookings for a single guest. How a quiet trip alone tends to go is described in our journal piece on travelling alone in Hokkaido.