Ryokan Hanaya — Hotel in Ueda

At the moment we entered the room #26 after checking-in, we were shocked with the status of our room. Its windows and walls were dirty, water tubs were rusted, private ‘Onsen’ room seemed not well-attended and so on. Any customer, who expects common-sence-level of cleaness in such a prestigious Ryokan (authentic Japanese ‘Onsen’ hotel), would claim against such a poor standard of amenity. Our first impression, therefore, was disastrous.||||However, during our dinner (served in rooms), the more we talked with a staff, the more we were fascinated with charm of this Ryokan. Such change might be generated by her hospitality and, more importantly, her affection to the place. To her, every item in our room, furniture, ramp, ornament and so on, has its own history, and is associated with memories of the ex-owners and co-workers who used to be here. Through learning the history by her talks, our view and evaluation changed gradually. ||||Although we still stress the needs to attend the room amenity, we finally became fascinated with the real history (since 1917) and dignity of the place after using their authentic marble public bath halls and all-wooden dining halls. On the 2nd day, therefore, we were fully satisfied to stay here.||||As said, staff's hospitality was excellent, and such attitude came from their affection to the place and we believe that it had played a vital role to sustain this authentic Ryokan for years. || ||Served Japanese cuisine, dinner and breakfast, was impeccable. We could feel, from the materials, the cheff’ heart-felt intention to entertain customer by making full use of local and natural crops. We heard that he had been trained in Kyoto, and that made us think that his such skill gave a new lives and tastes to his selected materials.||||So far, this is an excellent Ryokan and it will attract a number of Japanese repeaters, but, even for overseas visitors, we would recommend the Hanaya to be in your itenerary if you want to experience traditional hospitality of Japanese style hotel. ||||We suspect that some part of this Ryokan belongs to the natinonal cultural assets. It may be hard to rebuild or modernize the buildings and even harder and more costly to maintain them as they are. But we hope that not only such properties but also its unique hospitalities tradition which we experienced will be handed down nicely to next generations to sustain the authenticity...

I was so excited to stay here from years before, perhaps my anticipation made me judge it harder. First, the good: it's a historic building lovingly maintained and makes you feel as if you've traveled a hundred years back in time. Slight imperfections like a crack in the wash basin just add to the ambiance. Ours was a pretty standard room in the main building that was ample for two with futons on the tatami at night. There was also a little sitting area to read and drink tea in while looking out on trees that were filled with birds. TV, refrigerator, toilet also in-room, but no shower or bath. I believe the more expensive rooms have baths and in-room dining. The hallways squeak a little, but didn't bother us. The dining room, lobby, and garden are similarly atmospheric. The hot spring baths were all quite hot for me. The best temperature was the outdoor one, but the marble baths were the most interesting. You can just dip your legs if too hot. There are various hours when men and women can use the three baths. Now for the not-so-good. The doorman/valet provided absolutely the best service. The other staff were by turns unenthusiastic, robotic, or timid. The dinner was fine -- very good even, except for one terrible course -- but the courses came out very slowly and were all typical fare including sushi -- in an area that is as far from an ocean as one can possibly get in Japan. I would like to have been asked in advance about dining preferences and for the menu to include more regional fare. But really, they are just catering to their clientele, which seemed to be almost entirely retirees with only a few young couples or families. I don't think this place is right for children, but the other guests really ruined the atmosphere by drinking too much, being loud in the dining room and baths, and being obnoxious to the staff. If you're really into history and architecture and can put up with typical Japanese-oriented service, I'd say why not go once. Otherwise, there are better ryokan...

I went to this ryokan with my husband without expecting much at the beginning other than seeing the old traditional taisho architectual style for the ryokan. But upon our arrival we were greeted very politely from a staff offering us an umbrella ( as it was raining) and treated well from the start. We loved the exterior and interior of this inn and I am glad that I made a right choice for the place to stay in Ueda, Nagano. My husband is English and Japanophile. He was very impressed with the decor of this ryokan and said he couldn't find any fault with this ryokan - several choice of hotspring baths, each room was large enough fitted with its own bathroom and very peaceful and the food was lovely. I read some of the negative review by a foreign tourist about this ryokan, but honestly I don't quite understand why they were not treated well by the staff. They have to realise at times inns in some remote places might not have got used to have foreign visitors stayin at their traditional inns, so possibly they might not know how to treat the foreign visitors, especialy if they are only used to be treated in the same way as they were in a hotel in a big city. They should have realised that Ryokans are different from hotels ! Anyway we both love this ryokan so much that we will definitely return to stay at this...