Jomon no Yado Manten — Hotel in Yakushima

The Jomon is situated across the street from the airport and it takes less than a minute to walk from the terminal to the hotel - very convenient for guests arriving by airplane, less convenient for those arriving by jetfoil or ferry as the hotel is about a 25 minute bus ride from the Miyanoura ferry terminal. For hikers, it takes about 45 minutes from the hotel to Shiratani Unsuikyo by bus (but note that buses only run infrequently). We had booked our hotel via Yes!Yakushima which turned out to be a somewhat difficult exercise as even more than three months before the travel date (and outside of Golden Week) most accommodations on Yakushima were already fully booked - early booking is strongly recommended. We effectively ended up with the Jomon due to the very limited alternative choices and accepted that it would be quite expensive (USD 630 for a Japanese-style double room, 2 nights, breakfast and dinner included) in comparison to the other accommodations on Yakushima. Upon arrival we were greeted by the friendly (although not English-speaking) reception staff and then taken to our room. While only a detail, I found it a bit odd for a hotel of that price category that my girlfriend and I had to carry our heavy luggage to the room, including up a flight of stairs, by ourselves with no help being offered from any of the hotel employees. The room itself, although spacious, was dark and faced a backyard with noisy airconditioning vents - not particularly welcoming. Since we had come to hike, we did not expect to spend much time in our room and accepted that it did not quite correspond to the room standards advertised by Yes!Yakushima. As regards meals, we had booked the dinner option and the Japanese dinner (Western dinner is not available) was copious and very good, offering a variety of vegetable, fish, pork and beef dishes. It should be noted however that drinks are not included in the dinner option and have to be paid separately. For breakfast, the Jomon offers both Japanese and Western breakfast options, with the Western breakfast option including little more than coffee, toasted bread and jam. The hotel also offers lunch packages for hikers at JPY 1300 per person which were quite good. For relaxation, the Jomon features several baths, including a “family bath”, i.e. a private onsen, which can be booked at the reception. However, use of the private onsen is not complimentary and subject to a fee of JPY 2,500 - something we only found out when presented with the final invoice at checkout. Again, not the best style, in particular as our onsen reservation got mixed up and had to be changed by the reception staff several times. Generally, communication with staff was very difficult as virtually none of the employees spoke any English - a bit odd for a hotel deliberately seeking to attract non-Japanese tourists.||Overall, and despite the very good dinner, the room standard and the service quality offered by the Jomon do not justify the hefty prices - if there are other options we would suggest trying a different hotel...

The Jomon is situated across the street from the airport and it takes less than a minute to walk from the terminal to the hotel - very convenient for guests arriving by airplane, less convenient for those arriving by jetfoil or ferry as the hotel is about a 25 minute bus ride from the Miyanoura ferry terminal. For hikers, it takes about 45 minutes from the hotel to Shiratani Unsuikyo by bus (but note that buses only run infrequently). We had booked our hotel via Yes!Yakushima which turned out to be a somewhat difficult exercise as even more than three months before the travel date (and outside of Golden Week) most accommodations on Yakushima were already fully booked - early booking is strongly recommended. We effectively ended up with the Jomon due to the very limited alternative choices and accepted that it would be quite expensive (USD 630 for a Japanese-style double room, 2 nights, breakfast and dinner included) in comparison to the other accommodations on Yakushima. Upon arrival we were greeted by the friendly (although not English-speaking) reception staff and then taken to our room. While only a detail, I found it a bit odd for a hotel of that price category that my girlfriend and I had to carry our heavy luggage to the room, including up a flight of stairs, by ourselves with no help being offered from any of the hotel employees. The room itself, although spacious, was dark and faced a backyard with noisy airconditioning vents - not particularly welcoming. Since we had come to hike, we did not expect to spend much time in our room and accepted that it did not quite correspond to the room standards advertised by Yes!Yakushima. As regards meals, we had booked the dinner option and the Japanese dinner (Western dinner is not available) was copious and very good, offering a variety of vegetable, fish, pork and beef dishes. It should be noted however that drinks are not included in the dinner option and have to be paid separately. For breakfast, the Jomon offers both Japanese and Western breakfast options, with the Western breakfast option including little more than coffee, toasted bread and jam. The hotel also offers lunch packages for hikers at JPY 1300 per person which were quite good. For relaxation, the Jomon features several baths, including a “family bath”, i.e. a private onsen, which can be booked at the reception. However, use of the private onsen is not complimentary and subject to a fee of JPY 2,500 - something we only found out when presented with the final invoice at checkout. Again, not the best style, in particular as our onsen reservation got mixed up and had to be changed by the reception staff several times. Generally, communication with staff was very difficult as virtually none of the employees spoke any English - a bit odd for a hotel deliberately seeking to attract non-Japanese tourists.||Overall, and despite the very good dinner, the room standard and the service quality offered by the Jomon do not justify the hefty prices - if there are other options we would suggest trying a different hotel...

BEWARE. They SCAM tourists. They put (Chinese) tourists into their round cottage huts regardless of what room you paid for. We paid for a standard room and a superior room and were stuffed in their outdoor round huts which were MOLDY and used for storage. There were literally spare sofas and wrapped up TVs in our room.||||I'm aware that some Chinese tourists are loud and are not accustomed to their culture and rules but not everyone is like that and regardless of where we're from we should be entitled to getting what we paid for.||||When we went to complain they blamed it on us and on booking.com saying it didn’t specify what type of room. But luckily we had our confirmation email and the photos on booking.com of the different room types. ||||Also their map (attached) shows that the superior room we paid for was in a different area of the hotel which was clearly not where we were put. They also couldn’t explain why our standard and superior rooms were the same cottage style when we paid a lot more for the superior room. ||||In the end they had no choice but to admit to their “mistake”. Hard to call it that when it was deliberate and they feigned ignorance. Bottom line is they don't give you what you paid for if you are a tourist. ||||They ended up putting us in the correct superior room which was clean and 3x bigger and in the main building but said “we are fully booked for the standard room! It is Jan 3rd and busy after all”||||To which I replied “well that’s not my problem since you sold me a standard room. I shouldn’t have to suffer a moldy dark and cold cottage room in the car park.”||||They then shrugged and said “sorry” but clearly weren’t. They ended up charging us for both rooms even though we gave them back the cottage room key and just ended up all staying in the superior room....