旅の宿 葆光荘 — Local services in Osaka

Stayed for one night with spouse and a 10 year old in a tatami room on first floor of the building. We wanted to experience living in a traditional Japanese home. Initially booked for 2 nights but glad that i revised the booking to just one night. They have a website (http://www.hokousou.com/e/p03.html) but do not have email, booking is through phone. You may refer to the link attached. There's a lady at the guesthouse who speaks English.||||Getting there:||Conveniently located just 3-5minutes walk from Tennoji station. From Tennoji station, take the North exit (天王寺駅-Tennoji, 北口-North Exit). Once you are out, you will see a row a shops accross the street, McD is one of them. Cross over and go to the right, in a bout 5 steps, you will find an alley on your left (on your right is the main road you just crossed) walk towards the alley and look up for Hokoso signage which is just about 10-15 steps ahead. Along the alley way, you will walk past few local restaurants.||||The Room:||We were given a 10mats Japanese tatami room so the room was very spacious. There's a TV in the room, a low coffee table with hot flask, tea pot, cups and Japanese teabags. The futons were comfortable but we were not quite used to the buckwheat hull pillow. What turned me off was the pillow case which covered just 3/4 of the pillow leaving both edges revealed. Glad that they provide sufficient towels which i used one to cover the top of my pillow. My kid and husband had no problem with that though. I know it is a traditional style but when you are running a guest house, perhaps should consider the general hygiene assumption by guests. I also found a long strand of hair on the futon, not ours for sure because none of us has long hair.||||The bath was great after a long day of walking. To those who is unaware, in common household, the bath water is only changed once a day. I'm not sure how often they change theirs here. Please shower or rinse yourself before entering the bath, as a courtesy to those who will be using the same bath water after you. You will also find a small piece of bamboo hanging on the wall right outside the bathroom, one side is blank and the other side is written with Japanese character, please make sure the one with written in Japanese is facing out before entering, this is to inform that someone is using the bathroom as there is no lock from inside.||||Food:||We didn't get to try their breakfast because we tried to book at 9pm for the next morning breakfast but apparently was too late. I'm not sure how soon we need to inform them, you may want to check with them when you call to book the room. There are plenty of restaurants just a few steps from the guest house and there is a 24hour mart nearby as well. So food will not be an issue. There was this particular restaurant that charges 350Yen for each order, whether it's a plate of barbeque squid, a pot of fish soup or a bowl of rice. The food was good and very authentic. You may ask the lady at the guest house for direction as they recommended the place to us.||||Overall:||If you are looking at experiencing a traditional Japanese homestay, can look past stained and a little torn divider and a partially covered pillow, then this place is ok. However, if you are in for a budget hotel, then there are better and cheaper ones with more strategic location at Shinsaibashi area. Will I come back again? I...

Stayed for one night with spouse and a 10 year old in a tatami room on first floor of the building. We wanted to experience living in a traditional Japanese home. Initially booked for 2 nights but glad that i revised the booking to just one night. They have a website (http://www.hokousou.com/e/p03.html) but do not have email, booking is through phone. You may refer to the link attached. There's a lady at the guesthouse who speaks English.||||Getting there:||Conveniently located just 3-5minutes walk from Tennoji station. From Tennoji station, take the North exit (天王寺駅-Tennoji, 北口-North Exit). Once you are out, you will see a row a shops accross the street, McD is one of them. Cross over and go to the right, in a bout 5 steps, you will find an alley on your left (on your right is the main road you just crossed) walk towards the alley and look up for Hokoso signage which is just about 10-15 steps ahead. Along the alley way, you will walk past few local restaurants.||||The Room:||We were given a 10mats Japanese tatami room so the room was very spacious. There's a TV in the room, a low coffee table with hot flask, tea pot, cups and Japanese teabags. The futons were comfortable but we were not quite used to the buckwheat hull pillow. What turned me off was the pillow case which covered just 3/4 of the pillow leaving both edges revealed. Glad that they provide sufficient towels which i used one to cover the top of my pillow. My kid and husband had no problem with that though. I know it is a traditional style but when you are running a guest house, perhaps should consider the general hygiene assumption by guests. I also found a long strand of hair on the futon, not ours for sure because none of us has long hair.||||The bath was great after a long day of walking. To those who is unaware, in common household, the bath water is only changed once a day. I'm not sure how often they change theirs here. Please shower or rinse yourself before entering the bath, as a courtesy to those who will be using the same bath water after you. You will also find a small piece of bamboo hanging on the wall right outside the bathroom, one side is blank and the other side is written with Japanese character, please make sure the one with written in Japanese is facing out before entering, this is to inform that someone is using the bathroom as there is no lock from inside.||||Food:||We didn't get to try their breakfast because we tried to book at 9pm for the next morning breakfast but apparently was too late. I'm not sure how soon we need to inform them, you may want to check with them when you call to book the room. There are plenty of restaurants just a few steps from the guest house and there is a 24hour mart nearby as well. So food will not be an issue. There was this particular restaurant that charges 350Yen for each order, whether it's a plate of barbeque squid, a pot of fish soup or a bowl of rice. The food was good and very authentic. You may ask the lady at the guest house for direction as they recommended the place to us.||||Overall:||If you are looking at experiencing a traditional Japanese homestay, can look past stained and a little torn divider and a partially covered pillow, then this place is ok. However, if you are in for a budget hotel, then there are better and cheaper ones with more strategic location at Shinsaibashi area. Will I come back again? I...

We stayed 3 nights, just for the experience. Rates were extremely reasonable, and the breakfast @ 525Yen per person must be the cheapest Japanese breakfast in Osaka! ||Though not used to sleeping on the floor, we found the futons very comfortable and slept soundly each night. The airconditioner remote controller needed a bit of figuring out but once we did, it worked fine, cooling the room fast. We did not really need it the entire night.||||The bath was nice and of just the right heat level - it was heavenly to soak in it after a tiring day of walking! The smaller bathroom / tub can accommodate only 2 persons whilst the bigger one can take 4. You can request Reiko (the host) to reserve the bigger bath for your group, at a particular time. Max period is 30 mins. She will place a prominent sign at the entrance to the bathroom to notify guests that the bath is booked for that time. We had no problem booking the bath on our 2nd night, at 10pm. Turns out the busiest time was actually 11pm onwards, when everyone else were back and wanted to have a soak!||||There are 2 common toilets on the ground floor and another 2 on the first floor. They are actually very clean but due to perhaps being rather cramped, we found the ventilation a bit inadequate. Anyway, we just made sure we made full use of the wonderful toilets at Tennoji Station whenever we returned after our sightseeing/shopping, before heading back to the ryokan!||||Reiko speaks fairly good English, so communication was not a problem with her. However, if she were unavailable, then you would have difficulty if trying to convey something to the other lady whom we presume was her mother.||||Just a tip on locating this ryokan : We followed the directions given by another forummer, to walk past McDonald's, shortly after that turn left into the alley. From that alley, we had to turn left again into another alley but Hokoso was located at the far end of that alley. ||The better / easier way is this : From Tennoji Station follow signs to Garden Exit (you actually want the North Exit or Mio Exit but it's not signposted at the platform). After coming up to ground level, follow the directions to North Exit or Mio Exit. These 2 exits are about 20m apart, so either one is ok. From Mio Exit turn right or from North Exit turn left - you will come to the traffic lights. You can see the row of shops with Family Mart and McDonald's, across the road. Cross the Road at the traffic lights, walk straight ahead past the corner Family Mart, past Mitsui Bank on your right (the road which you had just crossed would be at your back). At this stage, Mitsui Bank is on your right and there is a major road on your left. Walk down past the first alley on your right (it's Horikoshicho 11 or 12 - sorry, can't remember exactly). Keep going until you see alley Horikoshicho 13 and then Horikoshicho 14 your right (see my photos). At the entrance of this alley, Hokoso is signposted (though not prominently). If you look down the alley, you can already spot the white signboard bearing Hokoso's name...