Name: Bentenkaku
Address: Kurumayu-87 Narukoonsen, Osaki, Osaki, Osaki, 989-6821, Japan
Rating: 8

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Junmachi Airport

Bentenkaku

Osaki

I was here to photograph the kokeshi festival, so it was a business trip of sorts. Above and beyond incredible hospitality. The owners are so nice and helped me get acquainted with the locals. I can't recommend this place enough, they really know the true meaning of countryside hospitality. One of the owners can speak English as well. 
There is a private onsen bath here for couples or shy foreigners who do not want to get naked in front of strangers. The food is gorgeous as well. The onsen water is fantastic. If you are in any way stressed out, or want a break from the Tokyo pace, come here, eat good food, and unwind in some beautiful scenery.

AMAZING EXPERIENCE

The hotel is located around 5min drive from the JR Naruko-onsen Station, which is reachable after changing to the local train (Riku-u East Line) from the Shinkansen at the Furukawa Station, 10min from Sendai. The train then goes into the Mountains and after around 40min you will be at Naruko Onsen station.

The owner of the hotel can come meet you at the station, or you can always go to the Hot Spring Town office in the station to have the staffs there help arrange for your transportation. They can help you call the hotel there.

The hotel is located at one end of the town, which if it was not snowing, is reachable on foot from the station. The hotel is a very typical traditional family owned hotel, and it is actually bigger than perceived. We had a room facing the mountains with large wall to roof glass doors for the enjoyment of the view.

Bentenkaku offers guests to use both the Private Bath (Kashikiri furo) and the General Bath. The Private Bath is used in a session basis, with each session at 30min, which would be great if it was longer! The bath is located at a separated building, where guests can enjoy an undisturbed open air hot spring pool, with snow falling from above. (Late March 2014)

Dinner is a standard set dinner served either at your room or at the restaurant. Prepared with fresh local ingredients, dinner was very nice. Even the Rice tastes better than what we usually have!

With warm services, the stay at Bentenkaku was very enjoyable. The tranquility of the Town, and refreshed after good meals and hot springs just make you want to stay longer, only that check out is at 10AM in the morning.

A traditional hot spring hotel in the Tranquil Naruko Onsen Town

The owner is a helpful friendly man who will come and collect you from (and take you back to) the JR station if you notify in advance. Not to be sniffed at as Japanese taxis are rather more expensive than they used to be, and the JR station is a reasonable walk away (I wouldn't want to cart luggage up that hill!)

The rooms are comfy and reasonably roomy for Ryokan. A front facing view looking across the valley would be my recommendation.

The food was truly fantastic: served in your room and a wonderful spread of local meat, fish and vegetable dishes. All this and the best value vending machine beer right next to your room, what more could you ask for?

The single sex baths are quite basic but do the job. But you absolutely have to book (for free) the outdoor private bath which is quite lovely.

It was raining (hey, it's Japan, and this is in the mountains, it's not the Seychelles!) during our stay so a comfy room, good food and several hot baths were exactly what we needed.

Top stuff, and I'd come back here with no hesitation.

Comfortable and friendly with excellent food

Very luxurious room, very friendly and helpful staff, outstanding breakfasts (both Japanese and English), very relaxing indoor and outdoor onsens.  The owner, without us asking, wrote down the train schedule to get us to Matsushima Bay; he also recommended several great restaurants for dinner, and drove us to and from the train station.  This was the highlight of our trip to Japan, and we hope to return to Bentenkaku some day in the future!

Outstanding in Every Way

After a slightly unpromising start we really enjoyed our stay at this traditional hot spring hotel.  The owner, who met us at the station, was clearly a bit anxious about having non-Japanese speaking guests (entirely fair enough), but had arranged for somebody to ensure that we understood the protocols of onsen bathing and arrangements for meals before we checked in.  

Although the reception and some of the corridors are a bit scruffy, our tatami room (with loo and basin, but no bath or shower) was really nice; spacious and with effective and very quiet air-conditioning.  The ryokan has a number of rooms with private hot spring baths which meant that the communal baths were quite quiet - I had the women's to myself on both occasions I visited and really enjoyed the moderate temperature, the lack of sulphurus fumes and the view of trees.  There are also two small outside baths which can be booked for private use for half hour slots in the evenings.  

Dinner was served to us in in our room and was both delicious and beautiful, as was breakfast.  I would definitely stay here again if visiting this part of Japan - it looked as though there was some good day hiking in the area although we only did the short trail up the Naruko Kyo gorge.

Bentenkaku

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