Yamamizuki — Hotel in Minamioguni

It’s to date, the best ryokan stay I had experienced! The room, rotenburo, food and service were impeccable!!

We stayed in a room that had a lovely balcony facing the river. We enjoyed our time on the balcony, sipping on coffee (complimentary coffee machine in the room 😍) while listening to the soothing sounds of the rain and river 🥹 What a way to start our morning! The private bath in our room faces the same river as well. It’s a pity the trees are bare. The autumn leaves would have been so lovely!

Fear not, cause there are remnants of the autumn season, in the rotenburo! Yamamizuki had TWO rotenburo/outdoor baths within its compound! So spoilt for choices. Both outdoor baths were next to a river. Personally I preferred the one nearer to the main building. It’s larger, and for staying guests the indoor bath is connected to the rotenburo via a quaint little walkway next to the river. Thanks to the scalding onsen water in the indoor bath, it helped built enough immunity against the cold weather for one to walk over to the outdoor bath shared by both staying guests and non-staying/onsen hopping guests! 😂 The outdoor baths had just the right water temperature compared to the water temperature in the indoor baths. It was pleasant to soak in it when the weather was cold. There were times when I had the outdoor bath all to myself. It was such a relaxing experience!

One of us had special dietary requirement (i.e., no beef). I specified when I made booking online via their official website. So thankful that they took it into consideration when prepping for our meals! Both dinner and breakfast were delicious and extremely filling. My friend and I regretted having had late lunch before checking in 😅 We tried horse meat sashimi for the first time too! Not a fan of the taste of horse meat, but when paired with yuzu kosho, it was oh so delicious! 🤤 The female staff attending to us was very bubbly, and took her time to explain the dishes to us. After finding out that I love sweets, she recommended some sweets that we definitely had to try in Kurokawa onsen! What a lovely lady 🥹

We came via rental car. The roads here can be quite tricky, especially for a driver like me who seldom drive back home. There’s quite abit of one lane narrow roads to drive through to get to Yamamizuki. It’s located slightly outskirts from the main town area, so having a car is definitely helpful.

My only regret from my time at Yamamizuki was that we didn’t stay another night 😭 Will definitely recommend Yamamizuki to others, and I look forward to coming back one day!

For reference: We stayed with Yamamizuki on 4-5 Dec. The autumn leaves had mostly fallen off the trees and onto the floor so better luck visiting mid, if not early November. Also, it’s yet to snow, so if you plan to drive here, there’s no need for snow...

My boyfriend and I stayed at this onsen hotel for one night and it was a rollercoaster rating on our part. Upon our arrival, the concierge lady brought us to our room and we were immediately brought to attention by the strong smell of cigarettes, which stuck onto the 'dresses' prepared for us. The air purifier didn't seem to be able to get rid of the smell. The concierge lady was rather clumsy and based on these two points, I gave it an initial 3 stars, which improved to a 4 (me) or 4.5 (boyf) star upon experiencing the fantastic outdoor onsen and the delicious dinner. |The next morning, both of us got up early to visit the onsen one last time before breakfast and it was even better than the previous night's with no one else using it. |Breakfast was amazing and I thought to myself, what a great start to another lovely day, only to be let down, immensely, by the unacceptable service that we received from the waitress serving us. Our miso soup, which had been heating up throughout the entire meal right from the start, was badly burnt. I only noticed it from the burning smell. We quickly called over the waitress and I have to say, I was startled by her reaction. |She merely apologised, poured water into the pot, closed the lid, opened the windows and left. No further action. How about my soup?!?! No new soup for us. Any restaurant, from your local cafe to 3 star michelin restaurants would offer customers a new portion if they were responsible for the mistake. We booked this hotel largely due to the highly positive reviews it received, only to witness such a low level mistake. Boyfriend thought that the waitress feared being told off by the kitchen for allowing the soup to be burnt, and was betting on the fact that since we are foreigners it would be hard for us to complain/ report. Whatever her logic, I was fuming by the time it was clear that she had no intention to bring us a new pot of soup. Never had I thought that such a situation would occur in a well established onsen hotel in Japan! ||1 star for this onsen hotel. ||So after leaving the restaurant absolutely gutted, we went back to our room. 30 mins later, 2 men in black suits knocked on our door, apologised for the burnt soup and offered us a new pot which i politely turned down.||Of course we accepted their apology and we felt much better. At least they discovered the burnt soup and made the effort to come to us and apologise which is why I give it a 2 instead of a 1 star rating.||Had the waitress offered us a new pot immediately, this review would be overwhelmingly positive as we did enjoy our stay.||One can only hope that this is a...

My boyfriend and I stayed at this onsen hotel for one night and it was a rollercoaster rating on our part. Upon our arrival, the concierge lady brought us to our room and we were immediately brought to attention by the strong smell of cigarettes, which stuck onto the 'dresses' prepared for us. The air purifier didn't seem to be able to get rid of the smell. The concierge lady was rather clumsy and based on these two points, I gave it an initial 3 stars, which improved to a 4 (me) or 4.5 (boyf) star upon experiencing the fantastic outdoor onsen and the delicious dinner. |The next morning, both of us got up early to visit the onsen one last time before breakfast and it was even better than the previous night's with no one else using it. |Breakfast was amazing and I thought to myself, what a great start to another lovely day, only to be let down, immensely, by the unacceptable service that we received from the waitress serving us. Our miso soup, which had been heating up throughout the entire meal right from the start, was badly burnt. I only noticed it from the burning smell. We quickly called over the waitress and I have to say, I was startled by her reaction. |She merely apologised, poured water into the pot, closed the lid, opened the windows and left. No further action. How about my soup?!?! No new soup for us. Any restaurant, from your local cafe to 3 star michelin restaurants would offer customers a new portion if they were responsible for the mistake. We booked this hotel largely due to the highly positive reviews it received, only to witness such a low level mistake. Boyfriend thought that the waitress feared being told off by the kitchen for allowing the soup to be burnt, and was betting on the fact that since we are foreigners it would be hard for us to complain/ report. Whatever her logic, I was fuming by the time it was clear that she had no intention to bring us a new pot of soup. Never had I thought that such a situation would occur in a well established onsen hotel in Japan! ||1 star for this onsen hotel. ||So after leaving the restaurant absolutely gutted, we went back to our room. 30 mins later, 2 men in black suits knocked on our door, apologised for the burnt soup and offered us a new pot which i politely turned down.||Of course we accepted their apology and we felt much better. At least they discovered the burnt soup and made the effort to come to us and apologise which is why I give it a 2 instead of a 1 star rating.||Had the waitress offered us a new pot immediately, this review would be overwhelmingly positive as we did enjoy our stay.||One can only hope that this is a...