Yugawara Onsen Inn Uohan — Hotel in Yugawara

This ryokan was a wonderful end to our stay in Japan. I booked through agoda, and I thought I had booked the option with the breakfast and dinner included but apparently did not. I am glad I double-checked ahead of time, because the in-room dinner was a large part of why I booked a ryokan. In any case, Agoda fixed the issue, and while it added cost to our total bill, I think this experience was completely worth the price.||||We booked the room with the private, outdoor onsen, and it was amazing! The room was massive and had some nice amenities like an electric kettle for tea and slippers for the bathroom. The onsen was appropriately sized. My husband is a big guy, and we both fit in there just fine. The rooms are a little bit older, and the soundproofing is not great. We could hear nearby doors opening and closing, but it was a peaceful stay regardless.||||Getting to the property was much easier than I thought it would be. It is very close to a local bus stop. I don't read kanji and for some reason Google maps doesn't translate the Yugawara bus stop names, but I just got on the bus at Yugawara Station and watched the screen at the top of the bus until I saw the kanji that matched the station I needed on Maps. The ryokan is about half a block from the station. The local buses take IC cards.||||The front desk attendant is very helpful and spoke good English. Ryokan "rules" (e.g. check-out time, dinner time, etc.) are provided on a printout in English. A couple of men took our bags up to our room for us. You are given two options for breakfast and dinner: 0800 or 0830 for breakfast and 1800 or 1830 for dinner. ||||Dinner was outstanding! It was so much fun to try a traditional kaiseki dinner, and it was all delicious! The woman who brought us our food was so sweet and was trying to use a translator app to tell us what some of the food was. It didn't work nearly as well as she probably would have hoped since it was hard to translate certain fish names, but the gesture was so nice! Breakfast, too, was also delicious. Finally, there is a minibar in your room which is well-stocked with beer, wine, and sodas. Prices are slightly cheaper than a typical hotel minibar.||||Staff make your beds (futons on the floor) after dinner is served. The futon were actually more comfy than some of the hotel beds we slept on in Japan.||||The best part of the property was the private onsen, however, and we spent a lot of time in there. We did not use the...

This ryokan was a wonderful end to our stay in Japan. I booked through agoda, and I thought I had booked the option with the breakfast and dinner included but apparently did not. I am glad I double-checked ahead of time, because the in-room dinner was a large part of why I booked a ryokan. In any case, Agoda fixed the issue, and while it added cost to our total bill, I think this experience was completely worth the price.||||We booked the room with the private, outdoor onsen, and it was amazing! The room was massive and had some nice amenities like an electric kettle for tea and slippers for the bathroom. The onsen was appropriately sized. My husband is a big guy, and we both fit in there just fine. The rooms are a little bit older, and the soundproofing is not great. We could hear nearby doors opening and closing, but it was a peaceful stay regardless.||||Getting to the property was much easier than I thought it would be. It is very close to a local bus stop. I don't read kanji and for some reason Google maps doesn't translate the Yugawara bus stop names, but I just got on the bus at Yugawara Station and watched the screen at the top of the bus until I saw the kanji that matched the station I needed on Maps. The ryokan is about half a block from the station. The local buses take IC cards.||||The front desk attendant is very helpful and spoke good English. Ryokan "rules" (e.g. check-out time, dinner time, etc.) are provided on a printout in English. A couple of men took our bags up to our room for us. You are given two options for breakfast and dinner: 0800 or 0830 for breakfast and 1800 or 1830 for dinner. ||||Dinner was outstanding! It was so much fun to try a traditional kaiseki dinner, and it was all delicious! The woman who brought us our food was so sweet and was trying to use a translator app to tell us what some of the food was. It didn't work nearly as well as she probably would have hoped since it was hard to translate certain fish names, but the gesture was so nice! Breakfast, too, was also delicious. Finally, there is a minibar in your room which is well-stocked with beer, wine, and sodas. Prices are slightly cheaper than a typical hotel minibar.||||Staff make your beds (futons on the floor) after dinner is served. The futon were actually more comfy than some of the hotel beds we slept on in Japan.||||The best part of the property was the private onsen, however, and we spent a lot of time in there. We did not use the...

We really enjoyed our stay at Ryokan Uohan. We haven't been to any other Ryokans so can't compare it but for the most part it exceeded our expectations. ||||First what we didn't like - the futons were not the most comfortable futons I've ever slept on, and we've slept on a number of them. ||The other disappointment may have simply been a communication error. We thought we were booking a room with a private, open-air hot spring. We did have our own bath that was very nice, but it wasn't open-air and it wasn't a hot spring (though the water may have been channeled from there but it wasn't clear). This wasn't a big issue as we found out after booking that I'm pregnant so I couldn't have really enjoyed it and it was too cold to sit with only feet in, and we spent a while at the foot spa nearby earlier in the day. So if you think you're getting a private, open air hot spring as shown in the pictures, make sure you confirm that's really what you're getting. ||Also, the more public baths were small, though still nice. ||||BUT, since our main reason wasn't the private hot spring but the Ryokan experience this place was awesome! ||||The location was great to go to Manyo Park, waterfalls, and shrine, and we drove (they have parking, too) to Fukusenji Temple to see the big Buddha head. It was easy to find, right off a bigger road. Our room was garden view and it was lovely and quiet.||||The room was spacious (though all are probably different) and had everything we needed. ||||We had our 1 year old with us and they were so accommodating - they brought a small chair for her to sit in and also a high chair and a dish and silverware for meals, even though we did not pay for meals for her and she just ate off of our plates. ||||The room didn't smell smoky although occasionally we got a whiff from another room, and the hallway was smoky. ||||We loved being able to choose our yukatas. ||||The food was the best part, though. We had 1 steak meal and 1 abalone cooked in foil, but the main parts of dinner were all of the courses preceding our main dish. But so much seafood (though mostly fish), and so many neat things to try. We have large American stomachs and while it filled us up enough we were hungry later,...