Kounso — Hotel in Yamanakako

The rooms are traditional Japanese tatami mats with Japanese futons. The mattresses were super comfortable and the duvets were incredible. So decadent and flouffy, yet cool to sleep in; I wasn't sweating all night under the blankets. The room does have an air conditioner, and it was able to keep the place at a perfect temperature.||||The bath/shower situation is in the style of a public bath, in that there is a shower area with little stools that you sit at and wash yourself, and then a heated bath to soak in afterwards. There were two shower rooms, but only one bathroom, so in the mornings, the women get the bathroom and the men get the shower room. The rooms are closed during the day and then open again in the evening when there are two hours designated for the men in the bathroom and two hours designated for the women. Presumably they don't keep the baths running constantly, because it's a small operation with not very many guests. We arrived in the afternoon when the rooms were closed after having just finished hiking down Mount Fuji, and the staff offered to turn the showers on for us; which we were very grateful for. All toiletries are provided.||||We had a rental car for navigating the Fuji Five Lakes area, and finding the guest house was super easy. We typed in the phone number into the car's navigation, and the GPS brought us to the exact tiny driveway with a little sign for the guest house that we needed to drive up to reach the place.||||There were a few restaurants within walking distance, including a nice izakaya that had great beef and good drinks.||||The guest house has one of those automatic massage chairs, which was fun to use.||The Wi-Fi was very reliable.||There are bikes provided for free to ride on around the town.||||Breakfast was simple but tasty. The toast was done self-serve, and the bread provided was this beautiful, thick-cut Japanese brioche. Very delicious, with nice jams to choose from.||||The staff running the place was an older couple that were incredibly friendly. We wish we could have stayed another...

Great place to stay if you want to visit the Mount Fuji and lakes area.

The owners want you to have the best experience even though they don't speak much English, the host lady helped us endlessly.

You can either stay in traditional Japanese futon + tatami rooms or a western room with beds and sofas. Its a spacious place compared to other guest houses or Ryokan, has a little garden and a common area with a pool table.

Not that easy to get to without a car from Tokyo, so do some research beforehand, in contrast its relatively simple to get from the house to Fuji San Park, just takes time.

Beautifull views in the neighborhood, if you are staying in the right season you can see the mountain very well. Its very close to a local bus stop, and also has free bikes to take out to ride arround Yamanako lake, but its also a 5 min walk to the lake.

Regarding food you can order a light breakfast but no lunch or dinner. But to mitigate this, it's very close to plenty of restaurant choices and there's a dossier with all the details on them. If you want a cheaper solution, the hostess has microwave noodles you can pay for, or you can go to the combinis in town, 20 min walk or by bus.

Important note, the hotel has two traditional shared bath room and shower room (Uchiyu Onsen), so for westerners this might not be of your liking, although when in Japan one should try one of these at least once, better on a small private hotel with guests than with the whole village in a public one. They also have set times when you can use them in the morning and afternoon (diferent times for men and women).

Great but simple guest house definitely recommend over the expensive and outdated hotels in the...

This is a traditional ryokan, with the accompanying restrictions – no shoes beyond the front door, no showers after 10 pm, general lights out at 11 pm, etc. The owner speaks good English and was very helpful in advance with directions - if you take the bus from Kawaguchiko to Gotenba, get off at the Yamanakako-murayakubamae stop (ask the driver), walk back in the direction you just came and take the road to the left just before Drive Inn Kakuya). We had a large room with en suite toilet and sink, and cupboards full of mattresses and sheets; since it is a ryokan, you make up your own bed on the floor every evening. The bathrooms are separate – one for men, one for women. Unfortunately, only the showers were working, not the bath. Breakfast was included, but was quite simple. The location is great for Yamanakako lake – it’s only about 2 minutes walk – but rubbish for Fuji-san. The bus to/from Kawaguchiko should take 30 minutes, but with all the summer traffic it never did. More like 70 minutes (each time on four separate occasions). Wifi connection is sporadic. There is a pool table next to reception, and a TV in the...