Hotel Matsunoka Ichinoseki

It's an older hotel, but the rooms are spacious, clean, and comfortable. Mine had four pillows, lots of coat hangers, and bottled water, which most hotels don't provide. The bed was very comfortable too, and the staff were lovely. A very good and impressive stay.

This is a vintage-style hotel where you still use a key to open the room door. It's just minutes on foot from Ichinoseki station, with plenty of restaurants around. Weekdays seemed normal, though weekends, especially Sundays, may be quiet. I had a single deluxe room with a sofa. The sofa looked very old but was okay, though I'm not sure what it was for. The hairdryer worked well, and the bathroom had the usual Japanese hotel setup and amenities. The staff were friendly, spoke English, and gave me bottled water at check-in. My one disappointment was the bed linen, which had a few hairs on it. Maybe they were from the room attendant, I hope so, because otherwise that's pretty disappointing.

The rooms are a nice size, and the location is great, right across from the train station. The staff were the best, so friendly and lovely. Ichinoseki is one of my favorite places in Japan now, and this is a great base for exploring the town and nearby areas.

The staff were really nice and friendly, although they spoke very little English. The hotel is old but clean. I think renovation work was going on during our visit, and the room heater wasn't working. It was really cold in winter. They gave us a tiny box heater that needed water, but it didn't last through the night and the room stayed cold. At least the toilet seat was heated, though the bathroom itself felt like an icebox. If we'd known about the renovation, we might have canceled and stayed somewhere else. They could perhaps have offered some other compensation.