旅館 植田屋 — Hotel in Totsukawa

The best hotel that we stayed at 1 month trip in Japan, was Ryokan Uedaya at Totsukawa onsen, Nara prefecture. The staff doesn't know even one word in English, but with good will, hand language and using pencil paintings we succeeded to communicate quite well.||It is a traditional Ryokan, very clean, with very kind and friendly staff and plenty of Japanese very good food. We stayed there for two nights while tracking at Hatenashi Mountains on the Kumano Hongo Taisha pilgrims trail. The staff offered us a lift to the starting point of the trail.||The ryokan has a real Onsen receiving its water from a natural hot spring rich with minerals and very hot (47°C).The Onsen has a very large window to a beautiful view of the river and the wooded mountains. It was a real pleasure to have a relaxing bath after a long walk in the mountains.||Very...

What makes this place so wonderful is the staff. They are so kind and helpful. Yet I should add, they spoke no English, and we spoke no Japanese. I felt like they would have given us there first born. The experience was great. We also loved the town, small friendly and the young man at the grocery store spoke some English. He set us up with email, dinner (cross street on left Great!) and tour guide. If you like mountain hiking, Kumano Koda, this area is for you. Us we went for the small town, autumn leaves and a...

家族経営の宿でしたが、従業員の方々の接客は、今まで宿泊した宿の中でも、良い方ではありませんでした。 それどころか、まだチェックアウト前にも拘らず、部屋に置いてあった私物を回収され、捨てられました。 しかも、見当たらないので尋ねても「そんなものはなかった」と言うばかりで、途方に暮れながらも何度も確認したところ、「ゴミだと思って捨てた」と。 「空瓶だと思った。（中身が入っていると言ったら）中身なんか確認しない」 「こっちはそんなのわからない。そんなに大事なものならバッグに入れておけ」 結局、最後までこちらのせいにして、謝罪はありませんでした。 それまでも、従業員の人の振る舞いに「失礼だな」と思うことはありましたが、こればかりは頭に来ました。 人として最低の従業員がいる宿です...