Hatago Tsubakiya — Hotel in Yamanakako

Normally I don't really write reviews unless it is extremely good or extremely bad. The room was extremely cold. The windows are single glazed glass which allowed the coldness of the outdoor to penetrate into the room. The heater wasn't working. We were freezing the entire night. The onsen was basically a heated small ingressed concrete tiled tub. The "onsen" water was not hot enough to be called "onsen". There was no hot water to shower after the "onsen". It was terrible to shower after soaking in the not sufficiently hot "onsen" There was no lift and we were on the 2nd floor so we had to lug the luaggages up to the 2nd floor and bring it down the next day. There was only 2 onsens rooms and we had to book prior before using. Each time was given 40min. There were 4 of us and we had to "onsen" and shower within that small onsen room within 40 min without hot water. There was only 3 stations to shower and there was 4 of us! We paid 46,000 yen for one night for 4 of us without meals. I think the price paid did not give us the value compared to many others we had stayed at. There is no shower room in the room therefore you MUST go to the onsen room to shower. Bear in mind, you need to book the onsen room hence u need to plan when u need to shower while the onsen rooms are available. There is only one hair dryer which takes very long time to dry the hair and we had to take turns to dry 4 persons hair. All these onsen, shower, hair drying for 4 people need to complete within 40min. This is the first time while I am in Japan and I can't wait for morning to arrive to leave...

This is not a hotel, it is a Ryoken. I mistakenly thought that this would be like a Japanese inn, but it is more similar to a semi-private hostel. The amenities are shared.

Your room is private and comes with mats and sheets, but showering is done in the onsen, which must be booked in advance upon check in. If you arrive late, you will get the worst showering times. Be ready to stay up late or have to wake up early in this case.

Speaking of the Onsen, while fairly clean, it’s quite a bit outdated. It’s clear that it used to be a multiple occupancy onsen which was converted into two private onsens, but the fixtures were old and some rusting. The standing shower, which was very complicated seemed to simply not work at all. The Onsen pool itself was nice albeit very very hot, even for my taste.

The toilet / upstairs sink situation was also a bit frustrating. There is only one toilet and one sink upstairs. While it’s kept very clean, it’s also common to bump into others who also need to use the toilet / sink, especially in the morning. At night, you will hear every noise coming from that area from your room, whether someone is brushing their teeth or using an electric razor.

The staff were very friendly and accommodating. And helpfully explained where everything in the hostel was, including the laundry facility...

Spend 3 nights at this place. Big spacious room with some view of mt fuji and lots of nature. Highlight of this place is the onsen. So glad it’s private and we had two onsen to book from. Also we saw them doing cleaning of the onsen so you can bet it’s clean. Downside of the room is there is no shower in the room. The showers are attached to onsen so you have to book to shower. The heating of shower is being turn on by the owners so if you book for a really early shower you must contact the owner to ask him turn on the heater if not the shower is icy cold. The toilet in our room has a weird bidet for ladies. I don’t know maybe it’s meant for smaller butt ladies cos it hardly cleans my in front and I have to sit way back to get my front clean. Other than that service is friendly. Once the onsen was closed for cleaning and we hadn’t shower so they allow us to use their personal shower. We also had to go somewhere to take our highway bus and the bus service in the area is very lacking so as we were short of time, the owner was kind enough to send us to the bus terminal. All in all it was very relaxing especially because there is onsen. We really miss this...