Name: Hinanoyado Chitose
Address: 49-1, Matsunoyama Yumoto, Yuzawa, Yuzawa, Yuzawa, 942-1432, Japan
Rating: 9

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At the guest house

Hinanoyado Chitose

Yuzawa

It's a small grand hotel. Its facilities are very cared for and its staff is especially kind and caring to the customers. The hot springs are a wonder both inside and out. The rooms are very spacious and clean, the bed is comfortable. The restaurant is a luxury, a local product traditionally prepared, with a wide range of drinks. The common areas are spacious and bright, with a souvenir shop. A special recommendation is to get to know its owners, it's a family business, they're very friendly and will help you with everything you need to have a happy stay. You can't leave the village without visiting Osborne's Billboard del Toro.

Best hotel in the area

Ryokan is located a slight distance from the train station however free shuttle is provided by the ryokan. Semi-modern setup with indoor and outdoor onsen available to enjoy. Complimentary ice cream and onsen eggs provided during certain timing which is a great enjoyment after your onsen session. Food is delicious which you may enjoy in the private dining room. Service is top notch although nothing much to see nearby the onsen.

Love love love!

We stayed 3 beautiful days in this hotel, which I regretted as we should stay longer.  

The food is terrific and we tried lots of local ingredients that we never try before, unforgettable.  The breakfast and dinner were included.  But ee had lunch there and found it's lunch was very good and not expensive at all.  I try the wagyu beef set with soup and an amazing desert at only JPY2 000.  Unbelievable!

The most extraordinary of this hotel is its high standard of hospitality.  They provided compliment car puck up derives whenever we needed to move around the area.  They lent us skiwares and snow shoes for , totally free.  

Would definitely going back to this hotel if I visit Tokamachi again.

What a great hotel!!!!

Matsunoyama onsen water is reputed to have medicinal qualities; by our reckoning it is also the hottest, at least in comparison to the 30+ onsens we have visited. The gender segregated onsens have indoor and outdoor sections, while the separate large outdoor rotenburo switches to ladies use after 1830hrs; the water of these we thought were the hot, very hot. But the private cedar wood baths were even hotter. The roykan is a modern makeover of an old, very well maintained with large clean rooms. Service and housekeeping were excellent. Dinner and breakfast were good, but not exceptional.
We arrived in early April and the trails around Masunoyama were still under a meter of snow. We took a walk along the road leading uphill which was invigorating. Am sure the trails in autumn would be exceptional for the mountain autumn leaves scenery.

Hottest onsen water

This was an absolute fluke find. We left longing for more nights here.

After many hours of scouring tripadvisor and japanican.com, we settled on Chitose. All the reviews on Chitose was in Japanese, and based on the approximate translation from google, we settled on this, although really not knowing what we were getting ourselves into.

We arrived after driving through the mountains from Echigo Yuzawa to this little hamlet in a valley. Our car's GPS took us directly to the front door. Shoes come off once you step into the lobby. These are kept by the staff in a shoe locker. We walked around the hotel barefoot. The hotel is completely lined with tatami mats, except around the onsen areas, of course. 

Check-in was efficiently done by the hotel owner's wife, Akemi. She spoke good English and was a great help in finding out which of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field sites were still open, many of which were closed due to the winter snow season. She also helped us to call one of the museums to find out if we'd left our purchases behind.

The hotel is a semi-modern ryokan with about 30 rooms, male/female baths, a roof-top onsen, and 2 private family baths. They also have a restaurant, private dining rooms, and larger function rooms. Generally, we hardly saw other guests, even though a tour group arrived at the same time as us. The private dining rooms, and the quiet, relaxing atmosphere once you enter ensure that your stress levels drop a couple of notches immediately.

Our room was tatami-style and furnished stylishly. There was a coin-operated massage chair and this was the only item that looked worn. The dining set in the middle of the room is moved aside in the evening and beds made up for you on the floor. Sleeping on the tatami floor takes some getting used to. There are air-con vents at shin level, just under the wardrobe. These help to warm the floor and kept us warm as we slumbered. The room was well-ventilated and not stuffy in the morning.

The toilet is separate from the shower/sink area. Showers are the typical Japanese fibreglass type. I thought the shower had weak water flow, but you could instead splash water over yourself using the small wooden bucket ala the traditional Japanese way.

We were shown to the room by one of the staff and she made us each a cup of Japanese tea with the tea-making utensils in the room. Our luggage was also brought up by the staff. The snacks were replenished daily, and if you really like them, can be bought in the hotel gift shop.

We chose to use the family onsen. This can be rented at JPY1050 per 45min session. There are two rooms and both come with a sink and changing area, and a shower and onsen area. The cedarwood bathing room was cosy and very relaxing.

Dinner was a Kaiseki course-by-course-meal. Lots of small dishes made with local seasonal produce. All were very delicious and of a high quality. The sashimi was quite different as we had not had the fish before while the tender and juicy wagyu steak was done just right. Breakfast was also served in the same private room. Similar to dinner, there was a plentiful variety of little dishes including porridge, pickled vegetables, onsen egg, homemade yoghurt and more. Meals were always very filling.

We managed to get free WiFi, but we're not sure if it was part of the hotel's WiFi network. There's free parking at the front of the hotel or the hotel staff will park your car elsewhere if it is a full house.

Chitose sets the benchmark in terms of our semi-modern ryokan experience. We enjoyed the serene atmosphere, and traditional touches nicely blended with modern conveniences. The private onsen was extra-special for us as a family, and we were spoilt by the meals. We would highly recommend this hotel. It is also fairly central to the Art Field, and made traveling to the sites quite a breeze.

Sets the benchmark for Ryokan experience: semi-modern, friendly staff and calming environment

Hinanoyado Chitose

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