Yamane — Local services in Tanabe

After a long walk on the Kumano Kodo I was looking forward to getting clean! As in many minshuku’s on the trek the only place to do this is in the onsen area. I don’t have a problem with this. However at Yamane the only option was to use a bucket! As a long haired lady - this really was a pain. And whilst i appreciated the mineral rich water for soaking in - I’d rather have fresh water rather then sulphurous water for washing in. |The toilet situation wasn’t great - two western toilets - but had to walk past a urinal to get to them. |There were three sinks which were used for drinking water, brushing teeth and washing out dirty clothing - not great (and I was one of those who guiltily washed out a t-shirt) |The room was small and dated and full of little gnats and mozzies as the window had been left open - we both got eaten alive. ||The only redeeming feature (and the reason for 3 stars rather than 2) was the food - which was excellent. And whilst some have said that the lady of the house was bossy I found her quite amusing - she certainly made sure you ate the tempura...

The owner of this place is lively and entertaining. She makes a lot of the food such as preserved plums much of it organic. Other reviews have described her as bossy. She does make it clear she expects you to follow her instructions but there tends to be many rules in Japanese Minshuku and I don’t think there were any extra here. You could even bath when you like which is more relaxed than most places. She very kindly moved our washing with the sun to dry it. The room was comfortable. The bath was a lovely traditional Onsen. There are no showers but so what? If you can’t use the bucket to pour water over yourself perhaps you shouldn’t stay in a traditional establishment. The food was great though dinner at 5.30pm is a little extreme especially as the bus got us there later. We were there in November so it’s dark by 5pm anyway but that time would be strange in summer. We enjoyed our 2 nights here and...

The accommodation was decent enough, but the host was really pushy in a way that made our stay stressful. In particular, I found it infantilizing how she kept telling me how to eat my food (e.g., instructing me to mix certain ingredients with certain dishes) and it was weirdly violating how she kept touching my food (e.g., she took the liberty of pouring soy sauce onto my eggs and dumping fish flakes into my rice in the middle of my breakfast). I tried to communicate my discomfort in various ways that were all ignored. Ultimately, she just made me so uncomfortable that I couldn't wait to get out of there. This was not a cultural mixup, as no one else in Japan (or any other country I've visited for that matter) has crossed my...