Tsutaya Tokinoyado Kazari — Hotel in Kiso

Conclusions:|I stayed for two nights at Tsutaya Tokinoyado Kazari - and the stay is unforgettable. Everything’s was perfect - location, view at the mountains, the staff, the Onsen and the food was amazing. The staff speak some english. If you are nearby them you need to stay at this hotel - it is worth the money. ||Review:|When I arrived at Kiso station the hotel car was waiting outside, where the driver approach me. After 40 min drive I arrived to the hotel, where i got a really warm welcome by the staff. The staff also gave a tour round the hotel, where they tried to explain about everything including the clothes, I could wear during my stay, but I did not really understood what I was told - more about this later.||The hotel is located in Kaida Highland in a very small villages - it is so peaceful. There are some farms in the neighborhood, where you can see the small Japanese horses, I did some hiking in the mountains nearby. The nature is very beautiful.||The room was amazing - except for the height on the doors. I have chosen a room in western style, because I do not like the Japanesse beds. The room had a balcony with perfect view at the mountains and the sunset. There was a bathtub on the balcony which was amazing, when you have been hiking the most of the day. ||Breakfast and dinners is included, and the food is amazing. It is Japanesse courses and they tasted really well. The staff and the chief tried to tell about the menu, but it was very difficult to undertand them, but it did not have any impact on this amazing experience. Before dinner you can have a glass of wine or beer in the cozy living room next to the restaurant.||In the aisle outside the rooms you will find some clothes - kimonos. One white and one gray/black. When I was introduced to the clothes I did not understand, when I should wear it. But the white kimono is for dinner and the gray/dark kimono is for breakfast. At my first dinner I showed up in my usual clothes, when the rest of the guests were wearing the white kimono. Next morning I showed up in the white kimono when the rest of the guests were wearing the gray/dark kimono. On the second day new guests checked in at the hotel, at they did the same mistake. ||It was also my first time in an Onsen. I was a really good experience and so good for my body. I have checked at google, what I should do, before i visited the Onsen - i will recommend that. There some special traditions related to an Onsen. But it...

This ryokan has its own private farm and is about 1.5 hrs away from Nagoya. I personally traveled from Tokyo which was quite a trek. It took 2.5 hrs by train to get to Matsumoto then another 45 mins by local train to Kiso Fukushima. If you inform the hotel, they will arrange for a car to pick you up from the Kiso Fukushima station, which is a 20 mins drive to the ryokan. ||The ryokan caters mostly to Japanese visitors as the staff only speaks some English. I was however lucky as I speak Mandarin and they have a hotel staff called Mr Kim who is originally from Mainland a China. Mr Kim is a soft spoken man who went out of his way to make sure my boyfriend and I were comfortable and at home. I was coming down with a cold and he even got me medicine without me asking. Every day he would attentively take care of our every needs and help us translate to our local driver, restaurants or anyone we came across. He always served us with a warm smile. ||The room rate includes a very extensive breakfast and kaiseke dinner. Breakfast is served at 8am and dinner at 7pm, which is typical of a ryokan. We wanted to upgrade to a nicer sashimi and A5 Japanese beef and the chef was able to cater to us at additional cost. For our sashimi meal, the chef served us in a private dining room and slices 2 whole fish in front of us. Likewise for our beef dinner, it was served in a private room in front of us. Food was of good quality. ||The room was fairly basic. Whenever we went to have dinner, the hotel staff would layout the tatamis, i.e. Our beds, for our return. We booked the room with private onsen in the terrace. The water was consistently heated but you could control the temperature of the private onsen unlike the public ones. I also went to check out the public/ shares onsen at the hotel. They had 2 outdoor ones facing Sakura trees and a large indoor one. Was very relaxing but the water was too hot for my liking. ||There really wasn't much to do at the hotel but they do offer bikes fee of charge so you can ride around the area. We did a day tour to Takayama which took 1.5 hrs by car to get to. ||Overall we had an enjoyable stay and I must really emphasize the impeccable service of Mr Kim who went above and...

This was a seriously disappointing experience. From the moment we arrived, I felt I had made a real mistake in booking it. This was the most expensive hotel I’ve ever booked in my life by thousands of dollars, and I couldn’t be more regretful.

We got there early and immediately felt very unwelcome. There was no one in the lobby to greet us. The place was dusty and looked like it needed a good cleaning. No one came to say hello, offer us tea, etc. The drinks and snacks in the lobby were closed for the day, for what seemed like no reason at all. No personalized service or warmth. The staff was basically just gone all day long.

The lobby is desolate all day long. It’s depressing and boring. The windows are dirty. The lobby has some free drinks, but the wine is terrible - truly very bad.

There are no activities at the hotel aside from the onsen. The onsen is very ordinary and also was dusty and dirty. There were several dead bugs in the long dusty hallway on the way to the onsen. This is despite the fact that it closes for cleaning from morning to 3pm every day.

I didn’t like the area around the onsen. There’s nothing to do for someone who doesn’t like hiking. The horse farm is depressing - the horses are in tiny fenced in pens, filled with mud. It is sad.

No one asked us if we were enjoying ourselves, suggested activities, etc. We spent our three days sitting in the lobby, bored.

I just can’t understand why people like this...