My husband and I visited Okunoin Hotel Tokugawa for two nights in January during a six-week trip through Asia, and it was one of the highlights of our trip. The entire staff was incredibly kind and accommodating and every detail of our stay was thoughtfully planned an executed. We stayed in one of the western hotel rooms, which was very comfortable and spacious (a rarity in Japan). We enjoyed four traditional Japanese meals during our stay, which were incredible experiences. The hotel has separate men's and women's baths, as well as private baths which you can reserve for a small fee, which we did on both nights of our stay. Overall, the whole experience was relaxing and restorative and one of the unexpected favorite parts of our whole trip. Thank you to everyone at Okunoin Hotel Tokugawa!

The Okunoin Hotel Tokugawa aims to provide a level of service expected of a luxury hotel. It falls short in some areas, but the obvious commitment of the staff to customer service makes those shortcomings easily forgivable. We chose to stay at the Tokugawa because it offers traditional ryokan hospitality in close proximity to the main attractions of Nikko. We thought we’d probably be able to walk to and from Tosho-gu and that proved to be the case (it’s about 20 minutes on quiet roads – the Imperial Villa is only a 10 minute walk away at most). Our willingness to walk (or indeed, to pay for a taxi) did give rise to some confusion on the part of staff, who seemed to struggle to understand why anyone would not take the free hotel bus at all times. We did indeed eventually use the bus to return to the station, but only because the timing suited us. On arrival at the hotel, we were greeted warmly and provided with a welcome drink. Each of the many tables in the lobby had a small glass bowl containing a single exotic fish. To me, these lonely fish were rather a sad sight and an example of hotel management’s idea of luxury being occasionally off-kilter. Perhaps some flowers might be more appealing? Our inclusive dinner and breakfast were excellent. Food is served in individual dining rooms by friendly members of staff. Our server behaved a bit like a kindly school canteen worker, with us playing the part of school children at risk of not eating everything served to us. Her aim was clearly to maximise our understanding and appreciation of what we were eating, and we very much welcomed her attention and commitment. We stayed in the older “Ginryu” part of the hotel. Our room had a large balcony with a private onsen overlooking a lovely garden and wooded hills beyond. The room, balcony and surrounding gardens were exceptional and justify a stay at the Tokugawa on their own. This was my second visit to Nikko, whose attraction lies in the natural, wooded surroundings of its beautiful temples. The rural location of the Tokugawa enhanced and complimented our enjoyment of lovely Nikko.

A belated review (stayed in July 2019) and our first time to Japan and the second hotel we stayed at. Had we not stayed at the next hotel on our itinerary (Honke Bankyu) I would have given this a 5 star rating, however for the price we paid in hindsight I feel there just was not enough value for money. We were picked up by a very friendly and engaging Sri Lankan guy from Nikko train station and driven back to the hotel....this was the most welcoming member of staff we had on our one night stay here. The hotel is really beautiful, especially the gardens and the forest outside the hotel, we enjoyed the hot tub on our balcony and the onsen within the hotel. The dining rooms for dinner were really nice and intimate and the staff were absolutely lovely, trying hard to please us despite the obvious language barriers, they were always smiling and efficient. The food itself was very good, a bit too much jelly-like textures going on for my liking and although it was superbly presented and very varied it was not as good as the food we experienced in the next ryokan we stayed at which was considerably less expensive than this one. The massage chair was an interesting feature and the onsen was clean and refreshing. In conclusion this is a very nice hotel, which is starting to look a little dated in certain areas, but in order to get top marks they need to improve on what they offer, or reduce their price accordingly. At these prices you expect everything to be absolutely flawless and it wasn't quite there.