Ikaho Onsen Fukuichi — Local services in Shibukawa

While visiting Ikaho in 2019, I saw 福一 while walking the stone steps. The unmaintained, unkempt external of the building and the bags of trash littered around the building were enough to make my visceral reaction be one of… I’m glad I’m not staying there. ||||Unfortunately, while visiting more recently, the ryokan I’d stayed at previously was fully booked. I happened upon 福一’s website and didn’t realize that it was the same ryokan that had made me internally shudder. The website makes you believe this ryokan will be updated and beautiful. Don’t be fooled like me. The ryokan was old and dirty inside. I’ve stayed at many ryokans and I don’t mind old buildings and fixtures, furniture, etc. Old can be beautifully-maintained and clean. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here. Carpets in common areas were horribly stained. Parts of wooden fixtures were peeling off. There was mold in the sink in our bathroom. The bathroom trash can was literally a yellow bucket that has not been cleaned of stains in quite a while. There was mold covering the soap dispenser in our room. The room I booked was called the “Modern Japanese room”. Superficial things in the room had been updated (like the wallpaper) but the sink, shower, bathtub, etc were obviously from when the ryokan opened. ||||The food was disappointing as well. It’d obviously been cooked in huge batches beforehand and was just sitting around for awhile prior to being served. The rice in the 炊き込みご飯 at the end of the meal was cold and hard. Anyone who is familiar with rice would know it’d obviously been cooked well before and had been left out for awhile. The breakfast buffet had plenty of variety but the quality of the food was poor. ||||All in all, quite bad cost performance. While this ryokan charges the same price as other ryokans in the area, the quality of the room and the facilities and the quality of the food really don’t live up to the price point. ||||I couldn’t wait...

Fukuichi is a hot springs resort about two and a half hours from Tokyo. A direct bus goes to it ||from Shinjuku station. Because of my ignorance of proper ryokan protocol I was naturally anxious about booking at a Japanese-style resort, but my concerns were laid to rest upon arrival when my wife and I were graciously greeted by the perfectly English-fluent Ms. Katy Niwa, who acted somewhat as our aide-de-camp during our stay. She walked us through the resort and answered our many questions, and was available when we needed her. Every staff member we encountered was friendly and polite. The resort has both Japanese and western-style rooms. We chose the latter, and spent our nights on futons that hotel staff laid out on the tatami mat floors as we were dining. ||||Dinner and breakfast were included in the option that we chose and were Japanese-style, ||in a private dining room attended by a personal steward. About ten courses in total, with all the ||usual suspects: sashimi, tempura, sukiyaki - excellent food. In the evening we booked a private ||hot spring bath (this is extra, about 5000 yen for 45 minutes) and had a relaxing soak in the ||loving goodness of a very large, steaming tub. During the day we explored the shops along the ||quaint, steeply sloped street just outside the back entrance of the ryokan. A wonderful place and experience that we very...

Fukuichi is a hot springs resort about two and a half hours from Tokyo. A direct bus goes to it ||from Shinjuku station. Because of my ignorance of proper ryokan protocol I was naturally anxious about booking at a Japanese-style resort, but my concerns were laid to rest upon arrival when my wife and I were graciously greeted by the perfectly English-fluent Ms. Katy Niwa, who acted somewhat as our aide-de-camp during our stay. She walked us through the resort and answered our many questions, and was available when we needed her. Every staff member we encountered was friendly and polite. The resort has both Japanese and western-style rooms. We chose the latter, and spent our nights on futons that hotel staff laid out on the tatami mat floors as we were dining. ||||Dinner and breakfast were included in the option that we chose and were Japanese-style, ||in a private dining room attended by a personal steward. About ten courses in total, with all the ||usual suspects: sashimi, tempura, sukiyaki - excellent food. In the evening we booked a private ||hot spring bath (this is extra, about 5000 yen for 45 minutes) and had a relaxing soak in the ||loving goodness of a very large, steaming tub. During the day we explored the shops along the ||quaint, steeply sloped street just outside the back entrance of the ryokan. A wonderful place and experience that we very...