Otowaya Ryokan — Hotel in Yuzawa

(2 night stay) Positives: although quite old, this place is very clean and peaceful. The rooms were nice and simple, ryokan style. Breakfast was simple but flavors were very good. Service staff were friendly enough. Negatives: on arrival we didn’t feel welcome at all (my wife is Japanese) with the older lady struggling to even smile partially and the younger lady seeming awkward at all times. Very unhelpful when my wife asked about the private onsen so she just used the public one herself. I suppose it’s normal in a ryokan but outside of the bedroom hardly no heating, so wrap up warm for breakfast and no lights on throughout giving it a slight gloomy/ boarding school feel. They also don’t turn on the lights by main reception so feels harder to put shoes on etc. My review is based on paying nearly ¥65,000 for two night with only breakfast including, on the breakfast, although very tasty, 90% of the dishes including the fish was out of the fridge, cold room and cold food. In addition, this is great if you wish to have a very healthy light Japanese breakfast mainly consisting of pickled veg that you normally see on the side of a bento.

Overall a nice little place but unfortunately I would not stay here on my next visit to Yuzawa. I’d rather stay at a hotel for this price or pay more for a...

We got this from the JR tour available at major train stations. The room we got was huge, with another room just for the lounge. I'm used to ryokans already so I won't describe the traditional aspects of this ryokan, but trust me. This is a real ryokan, and not a hotel with tatami rooms.||||This is for stressed people who would like to get away from it all. After checking in, we went to a nearby "trekking path" and went up around 30 minutes along a river, and after a man-made looking waterfall, we saw the real thing, while the place was still with snow. SO pretty :) We didn't really go to this ryokan for that, it just happened to be there. ||||An onsen trip is a trip in itself, so we rushed back to the ryokan to enjoy the onsen, sip tea, smell the fresh air. I don't know know why but I love Japanese air so much! LOL. ||||When we got back to our room, I didn't expect a lounge in the other side of the room. It had a huge red couch, very modern looking. I was wondering what on earth it was doing there but realized that it could be heated up. It was still snowy in May, after all.||||It has tatami, futon or Japanese beds, western bath, just, a typical high class ryokan. I'll post...

I was here for a day bath after a ski trip, after finding it among one of the not many inns that offer day baths, with attractive open-air baths photos. As I arrived at the front desk, the owner was nice to explain to me something about the availability, which I do not understand since I don’t speak Japanese. I paid and entered anyway, to find out what the owner perhaps tried to explain - the baths are opened to and altered between male and female in separated time period in the day, and I unfortunately was not int the right time to arrive to enjoy the facility on the photos, but only got accessed to a smaller bath. I looked up the information again on the official website and I still did not find descriptions about this special arrangement. I intentionally also looked around the frontdesk, and still no clues to explain about the arrangement. I think it would be nice to clarify officially how day baths are served. For a foreign customer, both the language and the availability of a phone line at hand are the barriers to acquire information about what to expect.

That being said, I wish good business...