Shirahone Onsen Yumoto Saito Ryokan — Local services in Matsumoto

My husband and I stayed here for 3 nights in June 2023 (originally planned for 4 but Typhoon Mawar impeded our plans). ||We stayed in the Kaizanso wing, with a traditional tatami room and semi-open air bath and balcony. We loved our room and the view of the trees and mountains. The bath looking over the landscape was incredibly relaxing (and you can adjust the temperature, which is nice). The only drawback to staying in this room is that it takes 3 elevators and an 8-minute walk to get there from the entrance to the ryokan. If you forgot something in your room, you are going to get your steps in that day! ||The decor of the room is traditional, so if you are a foreigner, be ready. There are no chairs except on the outside deck, for example. The bed futons are laid out while you are at dinner, and I found that one futon was not enough, but with two futons on the tatami floor, it was just right. The bedding was super soft and comfortable, and I loved the traditional yakuta pijamas. ||The staff was super helpful with making the ryokan reservations and dealing with the typhoon disruption. Miura was very gracious and understanding. The hotel also has a gift shop with lots of interesting food gifts.||We tried the private bath, but it was 41 C and too hot for us. The ryokan-only open-air baths are low temperature at around 37 C are much more tolerable. Sitting in the milky white waters surrounded by trees and beautiful rock decor is really magical (but they do smell like sulphur). There was generally no one in the open-air bath in the afternoon (it seems it's more customary to go early in the morning). You can't wear any clothes or bathing suits, and no tattoos, so just be aware of this. There is also a separate larger bath open to the public, but we didn't get to try that one.||We had breakfast and dinner all 3 days at the hotel, in a private tatami room in the restaurant. The traditional Japanese breakfast was great, and the dinner varied, which was nice. There was sukiyaki and other hotpots and steam pots, as well as sashimi, rice, miso or dashi soup, and dessert. There is a modest corkage fee if you want to bring your own beverages, which we appreciated. Our server was great. ||The view from our room -- and along all the roads to the ryokan -- was very nice, but I was a bit disappointed that there were no hiking trails within walking distance of the ryokan or the charming Shirahone Onsen village, since the scenery is so spectacular. There is an old hiking trail down to some waterfalls that is past the bus stop, but it seemed like a lot of the wooden trail was broken and it was closed. It would be nice if you didn't have to drive a ways to get to a way to be in the woods. Also note that there is no ATM in Shirahone Onsen or really nearby, so bring plenty of cash with you from wherever you are coming from. There is also no ATM in Kamikochi, but the taxis and most of the stores and restaurants don't take credit cards (they take local mobile payments like PayPay but foreigners can't register for those). The bus to Kamikochi does take credits cards, and at least one restaurant and two gift shops in Kamikochi also take credit cards, so we were able to get back to the Kamikochi bus depot and not be stranded in Kamikochi :)||Overall, we loved the traditional ryokan experience that this hotel offers, but it may not be for...

My friend living in Japan recommended the Shirahone Onsen. Tripadvisor listed this ryokan as the best in Matsumoto. So we decided to give it a shot. ||We came to this place on December 30th, which is during the Japanese New Year holiday season. Lots of locals are traveling during this time. If you are coming from Tokyo, the best commute option is to take the Chuo line limited express running between Matsumoto and Shinjuku. I always recommend buying train tickets ahead of time to secure reserved seats. If you hold non-reserved tickets, it is highly possible that you will be standing all the time. ||Then from Matsumoto, you can take a bus bound for the Shirahone Osen station. Yumoto Saito Ryokan is about 500 meters from the Shirahone Onsen station. There will be a hotel shuttle waiting at the Shirahone onsen station. Keep in mind that there is only one bus each day from Matsumoto to Shirahone Onsen. It departs at 1:30 pm. If you miss that bus, it is gonna be a nightmare because there is no train running between Matsumoto and Shirahone Onsen. And if you need to call a taxi, most of the drivers don't speak English and it is super expensive. There are two buses from Shirahone Onsen to Matsumoto, one leaves at 10:05 am, and the next one leaves at 3:45 pm. I notice some people are willing to take the afternoon bus to give them more to explore the nearby areas. ||I wouldn't recommend driving on your own, because the last 8.6 km to the hotel was very narrow and covered with snow almost all year. ||The hotel has a couple of connected buildings. The high-end building is Kaizanso (介山莊). It is closest to the public bath. ||There are two types of onsen here. One is completely open-air without a roof. It was almost 10 degrees Celcius below zero during at the time our visit and the water wasn't warm enough (close to 35-36 degrees Celcius). So I didn't try the open-air one. Another type is indoor plus open-air with a roof. The water of the indoor onsen is pretty warm. I personally like the open-air one with a roof. You are well shielded from the snow or rain, and you get fresh air. Plus, water is warm enough for the open-air one with a roof. They switch and female and male onsen spot every day. So you can try both. The onsen water is milk-white and of high quality without a doubt.||They serve your dinner and breakfast on the second floor. They serve you dish by dish. I personally hate this style because the whole meal takes a long time especially if you are served by an intern waitress who is incompetent. It took us almost 2 hours and we spent a lot of time purely waiting. I really hope that they can expedite their serving and don't make me wait. ||In general, the onsen is top notch and service can be better. I will recommend this ryokan purely because it provides a very...

Hospitality: ☆☆☆☆☆ Excellent. The hotel staffs greet us upon our arrival and helped us to park our car. The Chinese translator named Way has been very helpful and he assisted us on our enquiry regarding our concerns on the slippery road due to snow and the icy road. He also toured us around the buildings and explained to us all the facilities. He has definitely enhanced our stay at the hotel as we were able to communicate better with hotel staffs. Also, all other hotel staffs have been very friendly as well. Our tea set was cleaned and the room was tidied up again while we were having our dinner at their designated floor. We came back to our room in a tidied condition again, as if we've just checked in.

Room: ☆☆☆☆☆ Excellent. The room was large and the design was great. The overall view was great even though it was overlooking the car park place. 2 tea sets with different types of teas are provided.

Facilties: ☆☆☆☆☆ Public onsen with indoor and outdoor onsen + shower place, outdoor onsen (without shower place) and private onsen (with additional charges incurred) are available. Not sure if the hotel is controlling the amount of people because the number of people in the onsen was optimum and not too many during my few visits to the bath and that was great. Massage chair is also available without any additional charges

Cleanliness: ☆☆☆☆☆

Meal: ☆☆☆☆ Breakfast and dinner was provided. The dinner was served like fine dining. The tastes could be better in my personal opinion and preference.

The only negative comments regarding the hotel is the booking process. It is all in Japanese and very difficult for foreigners who do not understand Japanese at all to do the booking.

Excellent...