Hatoguruma Kawabata

店主，和藹可親，早餐好吃

This was a decidedly disappointing experience for us. The elderly woman in charge had limited English but very clearly said that she would not put the heat on in the ryokan’s onsen because we were “only there for one night.” We were able to locate the two nearby public onsens and they were quite unique but I would have enjoyed a soak in what had been advertised as the included one, especially as it was very rainy and a bit slippery in the streets during our stay. The room was Japanese-style; cluttered and dated but clean. The vegetarian dinner was nicely plated but very bland with lots of limp vegetables; we had been out to lunch that day and had been served seasonal local greens, and I was shocked at the difference in flavors. The breakfast was nice, but it’s instant coffee for those that care. There were many many cages of chattering birds that were in the dining room when we first arrived and were fortunately later moved to an area near to our room; they were loud but fortunately the sound didn’t travel and we slept okay.