Sunrise Meiji-ya — Hotel in Nozawaonsen

Being Japanese myself, I felt if I went back to my family home with very heart warming atmosphere. If you like or don't mind children, their grand children are so thrilled to see you and they are very cute and adorable!||||The lodge can be very difficult to find if you approach from the main road, located at the end of Oyu Dori Avenue near the post office. Parking spaces are available in front of the entrance. The lodge is combined with hotel unit and owner's residence. Guest rooms are agreeable depending your needs size-wise, basic but renovated. Being a Minshuku not Ryokan, you will be expected to lay your futons yourself. Toilets and wash basins are outside of rooms. Bathrooms are at basement floor, mens' and ladies' separated.||||Meals are served at dining room where feels like a school classroom with tables and chairs. Mamasan (or Oka-san) is a friendly lady and she is a very good cook! You will be expected to eat traditional Japanese dinner and breakfast with lots of different type of dishes.||||Some points to advice. Grand children can be very noisy but adorable, as soon as you enter the entrance if these kids are about they can also welcome you with little English saying Halo! Watch out for a big sister she is the loudest!||||Bathrooms are disappointing you need to step downstairs in rather dark corridor. Bathrooms are spacious but very pale looking. For this reason I recommend you to pop out and try some of outdoor public baths.||||Oka-san, the lady of the lodge is very shy but she is also a very helpful person. We tried to find out train times but because of no internet/wifi available, she called JR station by phone and let us know with fares too.||||Internet / wifi not available at lodge. Payment can only be done by cash (very Japanese standard). Post office has ATM machine inside but watch out of opening hours, weekend is closed means no ATM access!||||Overall experience it was fair and negotiable. Location excellent especially only 5mins walk to Sunday morning market. Foods are beyond excellent! Both taste and volume...

We could have chosen one of the fancy lodges or hotels to stay in, but we wanted a Japanese Ryokan experience - and we certainly got it! ||Finding the place was quite difficult as there are no signs in English that signal this place or the streets. It was just a luck of the draw that we had a picture and nervously knocked on the door of the right building. It's located on one of the main streets of the town, so really handy to some shops, restaurants, onsens and the bus stop.||The hosts tried so hard to make us welcome - they didn't speak a speck of English and we didn't have an ounce of Japanese other than greetings. We did alright though, they managed to show us on the map a few places to eat and even figured out that what we needed etc. One thing we didn't figure out though is the showering facilities situation, as there are only communal hand basins and toilets on each floor. We expected to bathe in the local onsens anyway, so it didn't really matter. ||Sleeping on the futons was more comfortable than we expected and even enjoyed the hard pillows. I think it's sorted out a few crinks in my back! ||Yes, there is no wi-fi, but that's the glorious thing about choosing a place like this. Removing yourself from the technological world really did us some good and I appreciated the basics of this place. We LOVED our time in Nozawa Onsen; snowboarding all day, eating great food in local restaurants, bathing in public onsens, Japanese language, no internet, sleeping on futons - all part of the real...

Wide, neat, clean japanese style room. Less than 10 mins walk from the main bus stop. Good experience to use public bath which available all over the village. ||||- strongly smoking smell around the corridor, lucky not in our room. ||-for those who don't love kids, this place will be annoying. Sounds of kids playing during evening and morning is somewhat annoying for me. Lucky we stayed in 3rd floor, less noisy. ||- the owner can't speak english, but friendly and helpful though.||- no wifi or...