Traveling to Japan? Find Minamioguni hotels

Its our first time booking a room with a private onset at Ota Onsen Hanagokoro. "Room" is an understated description, its actually a big cozy log cabin with two standard beds (big enough for 2), a separate tatami sitting area, separate baths (with onsen) & toilet. The onset bath water is very hot so we have to mixed it with cold tap water to use it. They also provide a coffee grinder and fresh coffee beans for guest. Perfect stay, lovely owners. Not much spoken English, but are extremely hospitable, so do use your "google translate" to communicate. Highly recommended stay. We also experienced -2 degrees celsius temperature during our stay (Dec 5 - 7), and woke up to a lovely morning view of light snow/frost everywhere. Our rental car is also covered in ice/frost in the morning, and so are the roof and grass and road and plants. The location is easily reached coz we followed the GPS mapcode closely.

My husband and I stayed for 2 nights in a room with a private bath (Hisakaki). Everything was excellent - top-notch service, meals, rooms, baths, free shuttle service! I was impressed even before arriving at the ryokan - left a note via Agoda about my arrival, and received a reply 2 days later. When we reached the Kurokawa bus stop on the day of our arrival, a staff was already waiting to transport us to Ryokan Sanga. Check-in was seamless and we were given a necessary briefing on the facilities and amenities. Then came the meals... 9-course dinner took us almost 2 hours to complete and it was really amazing! Breakfast was huge and very good. Got to try the outdoor bath for ladies and private outdoor bath (reserve at check-in). The views were amazing, there were adequate amenities, and it was just so relaxing. Yukata is provided, and you can basically go about everywhere in it. Highly recommended! Just book early as there are limited rooms with private baths.

First and only stay in a ryokan but I cannot imagine something being much better than this. The staff: They were amazingly friendly and so helpful. From being greeted in the parking lot, having our bags brought in on a cart with our name on a plank! To the helpful and patient explanations and service in our room and finally the assistance in taking our bags back to the car and the wave and bow goodbye. The room: This has got to be one of the larger rooms I have ever stayed in. Very nice Japanese style with tatami mats, super comfy futon and even a balcony to watch the river and see the fall colors. The Onsen: There are two public Onsen right next to each other, one side for men the other for women. There are many various sized private onsen that you can use anytime you wish. The food: We only had breakfast included but we were amazed with the variety/presentation and taste. Summary - One of my fondest memories of Japan.

We loved everything we saw at the ryokan from the friendliness of the staff to the facility, it's top-notch. All the onsens were well maintained with enough descriptions for English speakers to figure out what to do. Perhaps the best part of it was the meals. We were blown away by the 14-course kaiseki dinner included with the stay. This aone would've costed around $100 elsewhere. It was a good sampling of traditional Japanese cuisine made with the utmost attention to details. The only complaint I had was that they couldn't take my Visa credit card which used up a good portion of our cash reserve.

The beef in that 10 course dinner is insanely delicious. That star watching section actually has a freaking huge telescope that i wonder if the owner uses his whole life saving to buy that, they have an expert explaining the astronomy in Japanese (only), and I saw shooting star! The staffs are awesome, I have this malfunction credit card, but they can actually make it work. U can also book a massage section. I got a facial massage at 5000 yen only. That lady was like crafting on my face with extreme seriousness and professionalism. They have 7 onsen baths, 3 of them are private baths and no advanced booking is required.

One time for experience is enough but we won't go there again spending this much of money. Totally not worth for this money! We also didn't enjoy the horse meat for dinner as I love horse riding and contacting eyes with them. Except the horse meat which I couldn't eat, there were not many choice I could eat. Maybe a couple of vegetables can be okay but we didn't spend $400 for eating vegetables shabu shabu. I hated the overall attitude about the server. He just kept looking at me with this weird smile under the glasses. We liked the location though. I will rather go to Yonago for Ryokan as they serve better food with better service.

The ryokan was comfortable and clean. All rooms have its own private onsen. It only has 10rooms and is cozy and exclusive. Hotel staff do not speak English or any language other than Japanese so it helps to speak a little Japanese or have google translation with you. Staff were however very friendly and helpful and assisted us as much as they could. Food was yummy and traditional. No wifi provided at the hotel and reception is not good even if you have your own wifi device so just enjoy a quiet and wifi-less stay. The only bad thing is the bathroom is outdoor with the outdoor onsen and during late autumn and winter it's freezing cold to bathe outdoor.

IF you are looking for an affordable ryokan experience I would definitely recommend this place. The service is excellent as the staff try their best to help you. I felt really pampered at this place. They also have their own private onsen so you can choose to use this facility if you are not comfortable sharing a public onsen. The breakfast is also excellent. Within driving distance to a lot of cool places like Yufuin and Mt Kuju.

Great ryokan, we got the cheaper superior twin room and onsen on balcony was amazing! With a nice view over some hills. Room was still the biggest we had stayed in so far and massage chair was amazing! Dinner was great with Shabu shabu style beef hotpot with 4 other courses. There Is a public onsen and one you can book for just yourselfs but we didn't need to leave our bath on the balcony!

This was the best hotel in our 6 day self-drive holiday. We only stayed for a night. The hotel is on the top of a hill. We enjoyed the breathtaking mountain view, the open air hot spring, the Kaiseki dinner and the breakfast very much. We booked two rooms, a Japanese room at the old wing, but we were upgraded to a spacious Western twin room at the new wing. The staff were very friendly and polite. Help us with our luggages on arrival and departure. I give them 5 stars for everything.