Do they still have any glass coke bottles? The one at the far right might be plastic.
The hot springs there have been regarded as healing. I guess once the word got out people desired to visit there. And since the area is isolated as you note, building a hotel there may have been judged a good business opportunity.That's not what's strange.
Its weirder that its apparently in a middle of nowhere and it still had visitors for more then 1,000 years.
That cobra bite might not have been an accident.