茅葺き一棟貸し古民家 美山FUTON&Breakfast — Hotel in Nantan

The cottage is a rustic traditional thatched roof cottage. It is cavernous and would be able to sleep 10 people comfortably. Built during the Edo period and more than 150 years old, this cottage has been modernized with a modern kitchen and plumbing and WiFi!||Rooms|We were housed in a tatami room next to the entrance. It fit us comfortably. |By the time it was bed time (8pm! Because we just flew in that morning) the bed was so cold. Jumping in and under thick quilt, it took sometime to warm up using our body heat. I saw some bed heaters, but was too lazy to put in on. |I usually sleep in shorts and T-shirt, but this time, I slept in long PJ pants and a long-sleeve T-shirt.|I slept well but the accumulated heat gave me nightmares.|Our host showed me how to secure the front door with wood panels that have latches that slide up and another latch to hold the vertical latch securely. If not for the wood panels, the front door is just shoji, made up of paper and wood.|We went upstairs to check out the other sleeping areas. The high roof line certainly affords great attic rooms, though there are limited windows. ||Toilet|In one word: Cold.|We had to turn on the gas heater electronically, and let it heat up. Then, strip and step into the cold shower area. I turned up the heater to 43 degrees Celsius to really get warm and fill the cold bathroom with steam. |A bath tub is also in the bathroom, if one needs to soak.|Outside the shower area, a sink with some amenities, including toothbrush, facial cotton, and Q-tips.|There’s another sink next to the toilet. Toilet has its own stall. Thank goodness for warm toilet seats.||Kitchen|On duty that day was Yaya, who cooked and hosted us. She spoke good English having spent some years in Australia. |Her cooking was delicious and the smells of cooking wafted into our room. |We ate by the hearth. It was really too much food, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. The food was o incredibly tasty - we had wild boar, deer, chicken, and fish, mostly cooked in the kitchen and then left over the glowing charcoal to heat, while we slowly relished the dishes. The fish was skewered raw and left by the charcoal to cook.||A really lovely experience. Although we were very cold, we really enjoyed our stay here. This rustic country cottage is an experience not to be missed. Yaya’s cooking and hospitality is also not...

This was the most amazing and delightful escape into rural Japan, made so easy and welcoming by the amazing staff here. We stayed in Mitoya, an old traditional style kabuyuki thatched roof house. It felt like going back in time 150 years or more (except for the modern Western kitchen that they’ve added on, which was super helpful!). So much fun to cook fresh caught & harvested local food on the open hearth in the living room, the way people here have done it for hundreds of years. And for one dinner, we had some local folks come in and cook us a traditional chicken nabe… You can choose how much you wanna cook yourself or have it done, or go to restaurants. They helped us so much with arranging transportation, and when they couldn’t find a taxi for us in this real area, the operator’s wife drove us herself to a nearby Kinsugi class at urujyu, which was also really great. When checking in, they gave us a dedicated tablet device where we could text them any and all questions and needs, and they responded to everything quickly and very helpfully. The only problem is that there was no western style spatula in the kitchen, for flipping those delicious local eggs in the pan! they arranged bikes for us, and we really enjoyed biking around by the river up the valley to the little shrine. There isn’t much transportation around, so if you want to be free to check out the whole area, it would be good to rent a car coming here. Otherwise, if you advance and let them know what you want to do, they can arrange transportation for you. Highly...

For those who want to experience Japan outside of the "tourist traps" in the city, a tremendous option! We stayed in both the large house and the cottage, and enjoyed both immensely! after booking our reservation, we were contacted by the hotel staff. and our transportation options, our meal choices, and options fro exploring were explained to us. Etsuko does an amazing job of customizing your experience for what you want to see and do,. We had the choice to have a guided hike to see nearby waterfalls and forest hike, cut down sustainable bamboo and try our hand at making handcrafts that we kept as mementos of our trip, guided bicycle rides, trips to see a historic village (37 oher historic thatched houses in a quaint working village), local crafts and arts, shrine, temples... What ever you want to see and do (or Etsuko can help you know what there is to do in Miyama). Meals were amazing, Frogs serenade you at night, and wildlife abounds all around. The trip is actually much easier than we envisioned! We merely rode a JR train from Kyoto (free of charge if you have a JR Pass for your visit) to Sonobe Stateion, where Etsuko and Michael were there to pick us up and drive us to the accommodation. If you like the countryside, do yourself a favor and leap at the opportunity...