Ryokan Masuya — Hotel in Hakone

Rustic might be the kindest description. Run by 2 older gentlemen with limited English, but try their best to be helpful.||||I mistakenly booked thinking this Ryokan was in Hakone but discovered using the tourist information centre at Odawara that it is another bus ride away. It took us an hour to get into Hakone on the Saturday because Hakone is very popular at the weekends & the roads are virtually at a standstill.||||The futons are very comfy & cosy, the parrafin heating does indeed have a strong smell as said by a previous reviewer. ||||If you get noisy guests in adjacent rooms you will definitely hear them.||||The main problem for us was the lack of washing facilites in the shared bathroom, just cold water taps in the basins adjacent to the gents pissoirs, off this room are 2 toilets with lockable doors. Fine to clean your teeth but not much more. ||The only hot water is in the onsen downstairs where you shower before soaking & the shower is fixed at floor level with a little stool to sit on, no wall hung shower fitting. And you may or may not know that washing in the onsen is a no no. There are 2 small onsens that you can use privately.||||There is a nice little restaurant 2 minutes walk away & a good shop selling home cooked ribs & chicken.||||Probably a good place to stay if you like walking, this wasn't possible in late march when it was covered in snow.||||There are no views of Mount...

Rustic might be the kindest description. Run by 2 older gentlemen with limited English, but try their best to be helpful.||||I mistakenly booked thinking this Ryokan was in Hakone but discovered using the tourist information centre at Odawara that it is another bus ride away. It took us an hour to get into Hakone on the Saturday because Hakone is very popular at the weekends & the roads are virtually at a standstill.||||The futons are very comfy & cosy, the parrafin heating does indeed have a strong smell as said by a previous reviewer. ||||If you get noisy guests in adjacent rooms you will definitely hear them.||||The main problem for us was the lack of washing facilites in the shared bathroom, just cold water taps in the basins adjacent to the gents pissoirs, off this room are 2 toilets with lockable doors. Fine to clean your teeth but not much more. ||The only hot water is in the onsen downstairs where you shower before soaking & the shower is fixed at floor level with a little stool to sit on, no wall hung shower fitting. And you may or may not know that washing in the onsen is a no no. There are 2 small onsens that you can use privately.||||There is a nice little restaurant 2 minutes walk away & a good shop selling home cooked ribs & chicken.||||Probably a good place to stay if you like walking, this wasn't possible in late march when it was covered in snow.||||There are no views of Mount...

Ive only remembered to review it now even though I stayed here last year 2016, because when I came back to Japan, Kyoto this time, we stayed in another ryokan, and I can't help but conpare the 2 ryokans ive stayed both at. This ryokan is traditional, very homey, nice and clean, plus the hosts are really nice people. When we arrived the elderly man made an effort to befriend and ask us about our trip, and also gave us mini ice cream, they were really yum. The view from our room was beautiful, we also had a small balcony it was so calming. The bathhouse had a natural spring water, it was my first time do try, and the man was friendly enough to ask me about the experience. They even had a channel list to make our stay even more convenient. I would really love to come back to this place. It's not a big ryokan, which makes it more homey, it really felt like a home. I still have the pen souvenir they gave us...