歴史の宿 御客屋(Okyakuya)

hospitality and attentiveness is top notch, a small gift and greeting note was given to my wife during dinner time, as the staff noticed her birth date from her passport as we checked-in. onsen quality is excellent, skin became silky smooth, a total of 7 public and private onsens are more than sufficient. food is delicious, no expensive ingredients, but prepared whole heartedly, rice grown by themselves, so are preparation of pickles. most of the staff here speak fairly good english, so communication is of no problem. despite a 300-year old inn, facilities are well maintained, not suitable for elderly as there are quite some stairs to climb. cleanliness is outstanding, i deliberately checked the wooden beams where no one will normally notice, they are all dust free! overall, we are given the impression that every staff here is fully dedicated to his or her own part of work, and this collective effort explains the continual success of this accommodation.

We stayed here three nights with the family (teenage girls). It is all you might wish for in a traditional Japanese Inn. The rooms are simply furnished as you would expect and the futons made up each evening. No showers in the rooms - that is what the onsens (hot springs) are for!. These are beautiful as you would expect and though I speak passable Japanese, they have good English explanations. Two things really stood out for me - firstly the service is genuine and superb. Secondly the food is really special - local ingredients and fresh seasonal food prepared with care and attention to detail in the traditional Japanese kaiseki style. It would be top rated to get this level of cuisine in the UK. They asked before if we didn’t want to eat anything (raw horse meat being a regional speciality) and we left the rest to them. The area is stunning and sadly we were scuppered by a typhoon for much of the stay and so had to really slow down and enjoy!