Musashino Bekkan — Hotel in Hakone

I'll start my review by saying that, despite giving it 3 stars, I would easily stay here again. It's a rustic ryokan in Hakone that has a vibe that was perfect for the final few days of my Japan trip with my girlfriend.

The breakfast and dinner that they serve is great. Not every dish of the 10 course dinner was amazing, but the experience was fantastic and a majority of the food tasted great. If anything, the problem was that we were served too much food (especially for breakfast at 8AM).

When we went, there was enough availability that we never got a chance to use the public baths. We enjoyed the three private baths multiple times (the baths on the 2nd and 4th floor were our favorites).

The service was also great. When we arrived, an English speaking staff member explained things and offered suggestions. The amenities (including the baths) are closed from 10:30AM to 3PM, so this person also explained what we can do in Hakone and suggested the Hakone bus pass that helps you see all the sights. After that, everyone was friendly and kind, but the English speaking staff became limited, which did cause some confusion (but that's an us problem when visiting a foreign country without knowing the language).

With all that said, there are issues that wouldn't take much to fix that resulted in us thinking it was only 3 stars.

Our Japanese Style Luxury Room with Open-Air Bath was spacious and felt the part of a proper ryokan, but it needed some TLC. Several of the wooden floorboard around our private outdoor bath had rotted to the point that the flatheads of nails were sticking out. We had to watch our step and avoid the shower, which is also outside. There were also a few stains, cracks, and mold that wouldn't take much to fix, but were noticable.

The meals, while great, were served by a lovely Japanese women who only knew how to speak enough English to serve us the meals. What she said wasn't always correct (we figured it out anyway) and we couldn't ask any follow up questions. On several occasions, the next course took 20+ minutes and no explanation was given (and we couldn't ask). This put a damper on an otherwise fantastic meal experience. She also reset our room for sleep and was late for that on the second night.

The final issue was the lack of communication about the ryokan. They have Japanese instructions in your room, but it doesn't have a map nor enough details to know what's worth going to. We missed out on the massage chairs on our first day as we only found them after translating the instructions. They also don't explain how anything will work if you're new to the ryokan experience or need to cook something yourself during the meal.

Again, this place is nice and I'd go back, but a few small chances would make it amazing.

Here is what you need to know: This is a rustic ryokan. It will smell of aged wood and moisture. They run air purifiers, but that doesn't change the fact that it's an old building with hot water features. The building is located in Hakone which is full of nature. Expect manageable bugs. It's located on a steep hill. If you want to walk anywhere, it will tire you out. The shuttle isn't always available and if you can't make calls on your phone, it will be difficult to manage the shuttle. We walked and it sucked. Some of the baths are old. The 2nd and 4th floor private baths were great. The 1st floor bath had a dangerous path to get to it. There are massage chairs on the 2nd floor that are a great way to relax/spend time. Especially since they only offer other spa services to women, not men. You need to know how to wear a yukata. It's easy, but look it up first. The meals are served to you in courses in your room, but the server leaves in-between. You're not eating in front of anyone. You will be sleeping on mats. The server will change your dining room to a sleeping room after dinner. This can sometimes happen early. But for us, it...

I would ask for my money back if that was possible. This hotel was a really unenjoyable experience and I would not reccomend it at all||I messaged the hotel 3 months prior to my stay to inform them of an allergy and received confirmation that they had made changes to my meal. I was served beef instead of abalone which was good, however I am typing this out on my train away from hakone while covered from head to toe in red itchy hives so there must have been some cross contamination somewhere. I did not eat anywhere else while I was in hakone.||I tried to like the hotel itself. I really did. but it just fell hugely short of expectations at this price point. The rooms themselves are large and the staff were polite, but between their lack of english and my admittedly very rudimentary japanese, there was a huge barrier to communication.||The hotel offers to pick you up from Miyanoshita station, however if you do not have a japanese SIM and have opted for a data only plan, this is not possible as you need to physically call them rather than using the internet. I tried to email them and received no reply so ended up going to a tourist information building to request that they call the hotel for me. It then took approximately 30 mins to find the driver that the hotel had sent because I was told to wait in the wrong location.||Later in the day on our way back to the hotel, we attempted to call from a payphone but there was no response and so we walked all the way up the hill to the hotel, we explained the situation and the hotel staff just responded with 'oh' and simply led us to our room||The private onsen baths are not as nice as the photographs make them look, and are hot to the point of scalding. We booked a 30 minute slot at one of the private baths and ended up just sitting on the side of the bath because we could not get in for more than a minute or so at a time.|There are also a lot of spider webs and huge spiders along the trail to the baths and around the baths themselves, I am quite tall so ended up with multiple spider webs to the face.||The baths inside the room were not very nice, the bathtub itself had a layer of grime all along one of the edges that made it very unappealing and therefore we did not use it. When I tried to shower, 2 of the older looking wooden floorboards shifted beneath my feet resulting in a black/purple pinch which has made walking painful. ||The lift doors close too fast, I was midway through exiting the lift with my luggage when the door closed on my arm and case, this was not painful but did leave a black oily line across my luggage and back of my hand||The toilets were clean and well maintained, and the view from the hotel was quite nice overall, but there were just so many downsides to staying here that I really cannot reccomend it||I really wish I had...

I would ask for my money back if that was possible. This hotel was a really unenjoyable experience and I would not reccomend it at all||I messaged the hotel 3 months prior to my stay to inform them of an allergy and received confirmation that they had made changes to my meal. I was served beef instead of abalone which was good, however I am typing this out on my train away from hakone while covered from head to toe in red itchy hives so there must have been some cross contamination somewhere. I did not eat anywhere else while I was in hakone.||I tried to like the hotel itself. I really did. but it just fell hugely short of expectations at this price point. The rooms themselves are large and the staff were polite, but between their lack of english and my admittedly very rudimentary japanese, there was a huge barrier to communication.||The hotel offers to pick you up from Miyanoshita station, however if you do not have a japanese SIM and have opted for a data only plan, this is not possible as you need to physically call them rather than using the internet. I tried to email them and received no reply so ended up going to a tourist information building to request that they call the hotel for me. It then took approximately 30 mins to find the driver that the hotel had sent because I was told to wait in the wrong location.||Later in the day on our way back to the hotel, we attempted to call from a payphone but there was no response and so we walked all the way up the hill to the hotel, we explained the situation and the hotel staff just responded with 'oh' and simply led us to our room||The private onsen baths are not as nice as the photographs make them look, and are hot to the point of scalding. We booked a 30 minute slot at one of the private baths and ended up just sitting on the side of the bath because we could not get in for more than a minute or so at a time.|There are also a lot of spider webs and huge spiders along the trail to the baths and around the baths themselves, I am quite tall so ended up with multiple spider webs to the face.||The baths inside the room were not very nice, the bathtub itself had a layer of grime all along one of the edges that made it very unappealing and therefore we did not use it. When I tried to shower, 2 of the older looking wooden floorboards shifted beneath my feet resulting in a black/purple pinch which has made walking painful. ||The lift doors close too fast, I was midway through exiting the lift with my luggage when the door closed on my arm and case, this was not painful but did leave a black oily line across my luggage and back of my hand||The toilets were clean and well maintained, and the view from the hotel was quite nice overall, but there were just so many downsides to staying here that I really cannot reccomend it||I really wish I had...