The world's oldest hotel has remained within the same family for an astonishing 52 generations. In the UK — a country abundant with ancient relics and structures spanning hundreds and thousands of years — the oldest company is the Royal Mint.

For the last 1,150 years, the organisation has been producing coins and bank notes on behalf of the British public. Yet even disregarding the fact that it enjoys a certain advantage being state-owned, the Mint appears as little more than a fledgling enterprise when compared to Japan and the world's oldest hotel — the Keiunkan Inn. The establishment stretches back an incredible 1,300 years to 705AD, the 2nd year of the Keiun era, when Fujiwara Mahito established the inn, reports the Mirror.

Hot water from the nearby Hakuho Springs was channelled down into the town of Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan where it has been soothing and delighting innumerable visitors year after year since it initially became a tourist destination.

The hot spring (or onsen as they are called in Japan) was continuously enhanced throughout its millennium-long history, with basic pools in caves giving way to baths in wooden huts before a hotel featuring private rooms and a restaurant was constructed.

Today, a private, free-flowing hot spring bath is provided in every room of the Keiunkan Inn.

"The hot spring has flowed freely without interruption since (its founding) and is loved by many townsfolk, military commanders and cultured peoples as a secluded place deep in the mountains of the Kai region. Keiunkan, to this day, still embodies the unchanging hospitality of the heart of Japanese harmony for all of our guests," the hotel's website explains.

Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan's extensive history features its fair share of drama. Major fires erupted in 1909 and 1916, before an enormous boulder struck one of the structures in 1925.

A typhoon also battered the property in 1982, resulting in the hotel's principal building being relocated three times throughout the years.

According to Guinness World Records, Keiunkan holds certification as the globe's oldest operating inn and is, by certain measures, the most ancient business on Earth. However, its age isn't the sole draw for visitors.

Keiunkan sits in Yamanashi Prefecture, the very same area as the World Heritage-listed Mt. Fuji — a spectacular summit that deserves to be witnessed, if not conquered.

The settlement itself remains traditional and tranquil. Major chains are absent, replaced entirely by family-run establishments.

One could easily be excused for feeling transported back several years to a different, less complicated time.

Reaching Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan presents challenges. Following arrival at Shizuka, a substantial city with an airport lacking direct links to the UK, travellers must board a bullet train heading east for approximately an hour to Minobu, a modest village.

From there, a minibus collects hotel guests for the final leg of the journey.

The hotel's current proprietors have resisted the temptation to over-modernise. While other family-run establishments now permit guests to wear shoes indoors, they have maintained the traditional sockless policy.

Nevertheless, they have commissioned futons in larger dimensions to suit the influx of Western visitors, who now arrive at the village in considerable numbers following Keiunkan's rise to international prominence in 2011 when it received the Guinness recognition.