Kiso Mikawaya — Hotel in Kiso

Kiso Mikawaya has good location for sight-seeing, but not for arrival by train. It’s about a 15 minute walk from the station, but with luggage we decided to take a taxi at the suggestion of the Tourist Information Center staff across from the station.||||We arrived early and we were checked in right away. The pleasant staff at the desk had enough English to help us with the details. After check-in we were instructed to pick out our own yukata by size from the rack in the lobby. This is especially useful if you want to your wear your yukata to the onsen and also to dinner, as we do. We also were shown the “Drinks bar” with complimentary coffee, tea, soft drinks - free and available much of the day, also during dinner. First we are given a room very near elevator but when we requested a change, we were moved to similar room at the far end of the hall.||||We were served good meals at both breakfast and dinner and on our 3 night stay we were given 3 different dinners. At some ryokans we've stayed at, three nights meant a repeat dinner on the third night, but not here and we found that quite nice. The same held true for breakfast - 3 different breakfasts.||||Our room was a large and comfortable tatami room with a view of the river below and the backs of the building across the water. The futons were very good and we had a sound night’s sleep. One thing we didn’t like about the room was the quality of light. It was a naturally dark room with few available lighting fixtures. We had one lantern type lamp which we moved from place to place in the room as needed. In addition, there was no lighting in the very dark entrance area for our room. There is lots of wasted space in large entrance area to room and with no light it is easy to leave something behind in that empty space on the shelf above the refrigerator - take care. ||||The public baths were nice and not very much used. We each had the bath mostly to ourselves when we visited late in the afternoon.||||A washing machine and vending machine with beer can be found on second floor in a huge room that seemed to have been intended as some kind of game room but appeared pretty much unused and empty.||||The halls and elevator are quite old and used looking. The whole hotel could do with a renovation.||||The hotel attracts tour groups on the weekend resulting in a very noisy dining room and conversations in the halls could easily be heard in the rooms due to thin walls. The rooms themselves are clean and pleasant, though the entry carpet could benefit from a good cleaning.||||We enjoyed our stay but recommend that the management put some money back into the property to...

After a long hike from Nagiso to Nojiri, then a train onto Kiso-Fukushima the hotel was a welcome sight. The room was huge, lots of amenities. My stay included dinner and breakfast & hot spring access. It's excellent value for money. Guests also have access to a hot/cold/soft drink bar, self-serve. There are tons of mags manga books to thumb through, though you'd need to be able to read Japanese for those. There's a vending machine in the lobby, which also stocked a variety of beer and chu-hai. There's a washing machine and dryer (pay) on the 3rd floor. My room was right outside the hot spring and had very nice views of the Kiso river. Sen-san, who checked me in was very nice, explained everything fully. She noticed I had a Vietnamese name, and we talked in Vietnamese. She is also fluent in Japanese and English. She was always helpful and I felt very welcome. The negatives as mentioned, the rooms are dated but that is normal for Ryokans of this age. I was given a smoking room, which had a strong smell of tobacco. I was spending 30 minutes at a time in the room, so I thought it would be ok. But when I tried to sleep, it definitely affected my ability to sleep as the smell of tobacco was overwhelming. So much so that I could not sleep until 3am. I would definitely request a non-smoking room...

Nous avons passé quatre nuits dans ce ryokan moderne, situé dans le très joli village de Kiso-Fukushima. Un endroit calme, avec des visites intéressantes et peu de touristes. Le ryokan est situé au bord de la rivière Kiso, à deux pas de la maison Yamamura, qui mérite qu'on aille y jeter un oeil. ||||Depuis la gare, mieux vaut prendre un taxi si vous venez à Kiso Fukushima avec de lourds bagages. La course vous coûtera moins de 1000 yens (moins de 9€) et vous vous épargnerez un quart d'heure de marche.||||L'hôtel est grand et les chambres très spacieuses. Ceci est d'autant plus appréciable que les chambres d'hôtels au Japon sont toujours exigues. Nous avions une chambre au 2e et dernier étage, avec une vue très reposante sur la rivière et le village. Nous avons passé de bonnes nuits, malgré les futons un peu raides. Nous avons finalement superposé deux futons et une couverture (utilisez ceux disponibles en réserve dans le placard), c'était déjà plus moelleux ! ||||La WiFi fonctionnait bien, la TV aussi (dommage que, comme partout au Japon, il n'y ait aucune chaine anglophone). Rien à dire de la clim/chauffage efficace même si fin mars il ne faisait plus très froid. Quel plaisir d'avoir un ryokan proposant des salles de bain privatives à un prix décent ! Un bémol néanmoins, la salle de bain comme la chambre et le petit hall d'entrée patissent d'un éclairage insuffisant et assez désagréable. C'est un point à revoir. ||||La décoration des chambres était simple, avec une touche japonaise appréciable. Nous aurions peut-être apprécié un peu plus de décoration. Les chambres et l'installation sont quelque peu vieillotes mais le rapport qualité prix reste très compétitif !||||Le petit déjeuner était bon et préparé avec soin. Il faut toutefois être japonais pour pouvoir apprécié pleinement le Natto et la prédominence du poisson de bon matin. Les boissons en libre service étaient un vrai plus d'autant qu'elles fonctionnaient à toute heure. ||||Le onsen (bain public japonais, au sous-sol de l'établissemet) était impeccable ! Quant au personnel, la barrière de la langue était un obstacle heureusement surmontable grâce à Google Translate. Le personnel était souriant, à l'écoute, et prêt à rendre service. Il a su se rendre très utile lorsque la situation l'exigeait (à l'occasion d'un petit problème de santé). ||||Après avoir passé plusieurs jours dans la folie tokyoïte, nous avons pris grand plaisir à nous offrir une pause au Kiso Mikawaya, où nous avons pu profiter d'une installation agréable, d'une chambre spacieuse et bien aménagée, donnant sur la rivière. Se reveiller le matin et se coucher le soir au bruit de l'eau, pouvoir sortir du ryokan et se balader dans un village calme, ensoleillé, avec de jolis endroits à visiter, loin de la cohue des grandes villes japonaises, c'est un vrai luxe et une expérience à vivre. Nous vous recommandons vivement le...