Ryokan Nakajimaya — Hotel in Kyoto

We booked this “hotel” expecting an authentic Japanese experience, but we ended up leaving during our first night because of the horrible experience.||Other reviewers had left great reviews, so we went ahead & booked it too. Boy, are they wrong!||||First, we were not even allowed to sit in the so-called “lounge”. It was sweltering hot outside, we came in to leave our suitcases at around 10 am. Our room was free but we were asked to leave & come back at 4 am. We said OK, because that’s the case with other places too. But we were not even allowed to sit there for more than 5 minutes, let alone use the bathroom. But that was just the beginning of our troubles that day.||||Then, we left & came back at 4 pm. Finally we get to see our room - but the AC was not working. The grandma whose “house” it is, came in & tried to turn it on - but unsuccessfully. Then, I used Google-Translate with the Japanese remote-controller & looking up the AC’s model number & finally managed to turn the AC on. Predictably, the AC had not serviced in a while & took hours to start cooling the room down.||||Again, until this point, we had no key to our room & no key to the outside main door if the house.||||Now they the room temperature was bearable, we could start thinking about our trip itself.||So I realized, I should go ask for a key, especially because we had to leave early morning in 3 days, and we should have the ability to leave early.||So I went & asked for the key, and was told by the grandma: “no key”. She hardly spoke English, so I used the white-board there to communicate our early flight & if we will be able to leave at 5 am to catch our flight back to Germany.||After hearing that, she complained in Japanese, then stood silent, and then finally said ok. I think she was going to get up at 5 am to open & then re-lock the main door. I was worried at this, but thought ok.||||Oh, also, the room has NO bathroom. The only toilet is outside & it is “Japanese style”, which means you squat.||||Now it was time for dinner, and we were about to leave. We start putting our shoes on - which we had to leave at the main door because “Japanese style”.||And we were discussing where to eat. The grandma came out again & said “Japanese style - SHHHH” - because it seemed like we had bothered her sleep & she decided to shut us up under the “Japanese style” justification.||||This is also when we learned about the “11 PM Japanese Style CURFEW”. She was gonna lock the door at 11pm & since we had no keys - we could not get back in after 11 pm. Now we were beginning to get bothered.||||Finally, we came back after our dinner, before the curfew, and this really pushed us over the edge. OUR ROOM was BROKEN INTO. Our stuff was moved around & it was definitely intruded. Since we had no key, we had NO PRIVACY.||||Feeling unsafe & trapped, we packed & left that night.||||P.S. the super-thin “Japanese-style” was very uncomfortable to even sit on - while we were going through this...

We stayed at the Ryokan for 3 nights. The location is perfect, in a side, quite street, 2 min walking from the center of the city - many buses and places around. The host was doing it best to make us feel welcome (however, maybe she tried too hard, which made us feel the opposite). The room itself was very nice, wide enough for 2 people to feel comfortable. For the 'Japanese hospitality style', mind that the bathrooms and toilets are shared with rest of the people (which I'm sure is a major consideration for some travelers). ||For the downsides - The shared bathrooms was not clean during our whole stay. In addition, there is a WIFI connection in the Ryokan, but it has a poor signal and we couldn't use it in our room. ||For summary - Average value, good location with some good sides and...

I stayed 1 night but they served me the best hospitality. The sisters stays in this double storey house and they will guide you to your room and inform whenever we can use the bathroom with onzen tub. We have a very big room so lots of space to move around and big TV. Good wifi connection in room. Shared toilet and there are 2 bathroom downstairs. ||||Great location. Just 2mins walk from Karasuma station. It's quiet at night so don't worry although is 2mins away from main streets. It's so convenient to travel around from there. ||||Tamiko's daughter, Hiroko greet us on the last day we leaving because she stays out with her husband and they speak good english. ||||I...