Upon arrival dismayed to discover that the hotel/ryokan is quite a bit older than expected, with more than a few uneven floors and 'old smokey' smell.
We were initially put into a smoking room, despite requesting otherwise, which was rectified soonafter, however the floors are not separated into smoking/non-smoking, so there was the occasional bad smoking odour even in our room.
The private bathroom attached to our room had no hot water for the shower, we had to get help from the staff to even get the bath running hot water, which it did only after 5 minutes running cold.
The onsen/family bath was fantastic, worth visiting even if not staying at the hotel.
The western breakfast was quite good, and quite large.
We had dinner one of the nights, but were put in the less-attractive breakfast area, which was largely dissappointing. This was a bit of a mystery to us, as the nicer dining areas were not full, and we were sitting at a basic table setting on vinyl floor as opposed to sitting on tatami would have been far more enjoyable.
The room was spacious, with some decent views of the nearby mountains. The service was great, with hot water for tea with a locally made sweet to accompany on a daily basis. All of the little old maids are very nice and always willing to help where they can.
The hotel was close to full during our stay, and the noise from the other guests sometimes caused disturbances.
If you can deal with a few rough edges, and except this place for what it is, you will have a nice time. If you are looking for a prestine ryokan experience, you will have to spend a few more dollars.
