Tsuruya — Hotel in Aso

We stayed at Tsuruya in early December. The ryokan is very quiet and seemed old but in a nice way. The girl who came to take care of us can speak english very well. She told us that this house is over 100 years old! She took us to the sitting area where she served us real japanese green tea and big red beans dessert which turned out to be very delicious. My mom's knee is not so good so the ryokan managed to set the room for her downstairs so that she didn't have to climb up the stairs. They also set the futon on a big table so my mom can sleep on it as well cos it's difficult for her to get up from the floor. ||Our room was on second floor. It's a very big room with balcony. There's a nice and newly renovated bathroom and toilet in the room. There's a desk with electric blanket in the center of the room. As the other reviewer also wrote, the room is quite cold, so this electric blanket turned out to be our favorite space during our stay. It would be nicer if the weather is not too cold so that we can enjoy sitting in the balcony and drinking some sake :)||Dinner was served in a private room on the first floor. The portion of food is very good. We've been to some other ryokans which served too much. The ryokan staff called us long distance when we booked the room to mention to us that they're afraid the plan we chose might offer too small portion of a meal. But we gave it a try anyway. ||Onsen is for private use only. We booked it when checking in with no extra cost and the staff will come to pick you up from your room when it's about time. There's nothing fancy about the onsen. But it will give u comfort and warmth when it's very cold outside.||Breakfast was served in the 'Mellow Monk' which looked like a nice modern bar. There's plenty of food to fill your stomach. It's japanese style breakfast and every pieces of food showed that they have put a lot of attention and effort to prepare for you. ||Highly recommend for those who wants to stay in real japanese style without paying extravaganza...

Did a day trip to Takachiho gorge from Fukuoka, as we were driving, we decided to stay the night at Aso Town before sunset as driving at night in mountainous area is not recommended and then drive to Yufuin the next day.||||We arrived just in time before sunset but no one was around at the reception area. I had to walk into the premises to hunt for someone. Finally saw someone near the kitchen area and they quickly got someone to assist us with the luggage and check in process. We were served a nice big cup of green tea to warm our bodies and chose our dinner time preference. ||||The room I booked was for the main terrace with balcony, it comes with a bathroom and a small tub to soak in. There was a heater in the room was it was not strong enough.. even though there's a electric blanket below the carpet, we still felt chilly... didnt even get chance to sit at the nice cosy balcony as it was too COLD!||||Dinner was very prompt at 7pm and we were ushered to a private room. And was served very delicious Kaiseki style jap dinner!||The next morning we were served breakfast at same room and breakfast was so sumptuous that we didnt had to eat lunch after.||||Overall this nice family owned ryokan was a very reasonably priced and includes dinner and breakfast too. Wifi only available in the lounge bar, as our room was right beside it we can rcv the WIFI without going there :)||||The only down side is the public areas/walkways/reception area has no heater! so when you step out of the room you can feel the chill along the corridor when we walked over to the restaurant area for our dinner.||||Staff has limited english but we didnt have big issue with that.||||The next day we drove over to Aso Shrine which was just a street away from the ryokan.||It's a nice old shrine to explore before we...

We, 2 couples, were very disappointed with our stay at the Aso Tsuruya Hotel! First, the pictures at web show a trendy, newly decorated, contemporary hotel. We were not able to see anywhere looked like the pictures! The truth is the hotel is old, run down, messy, dirty, very cold in temperature and not well equipped. It's misleading if the hotel has a new wing (I assume) but is hiding the truth of the old wing by not describing or showing the real pictures but selling together. Second, the hotel is not offering what a hotel should require. It's very cold everywhere, including lobby and our rooms. The room's little gas smelly heater stopped by itself in middle of night and we were sleeping at 12C whole night. The hotel sent 2 hot water bed warmers to my brother's room! There is another old heater at ceiling that is not quite functioning but very noisy the whole night. Obviously, we all could not sleep well. The toilet room and bathroom are very cold. They put a warm light at private bathroom but it was still too cold to take bath at around 0C when outside was -4C. We could not take bath unless we went for public bath but I particularly ensured I bought a room with private bath. We were like wild camping, shovelling all the time, as the hotel is not equipped at all. The hot water tab has no hot or warm water. Although we booked 3 days 2 nights, we had no choice but to leave the next day and to buy another normal hotel since we would get sick if we stay longer at this non-equipped (especially in cold weather) so-called hotel but an old house trying to convert to a hotel. We have stayed at a number of hotels in Japan, but this one is far below our expectation especially the price is not cheap in...