Pension Hana Kirin

We paid 7,800 yen per person per night during Golden Week for two nights with dinner and breakfast included, which felt like very good value. The meals weren’t fancy, but everything tasted good, the portions were generous, and the presentation was nice. Dinner was mostly chicken sauté and hamburgers; breakfast had scrambled eggs, salad, and bread. We ate comfortably at a large dining table. Our first-floor corner room sometimes let in footsteps and hallway conversations, but it didn’t bother us, and our dog relaxed there. Pets can stay in the room with you, though they’re not allowed in the dining areas, bathrooms, or toilets.

Dinner was rice with hamburger steak, and breakfast was mostly bread. Both were tasty, with portions that felt about right. The inn is a wooden lodge, and it has amenities for dogs. There’s a clothesline in the middle of the room, which came in handy for drying clothes soaked in the rain. The room’s TV is a CRT, with a distinctive, nostalgic picture, but it’ll feel tiny if you’re used to a big LCD. You can hear the upstairs floorboards creak when someone walks around. It fades under the TV, but stands out when you’re trying to sleep in a quiet room. There are books in the second-floor common area, though people also walk through there, so that may make it hard to settle in and read. The family bath was cleaner. The single-person bath had a sloping ceiling and a strange atmosphere that made me a little uneasy, so I couldn’t get in the tub.

You’ll need a car to get here, since the location isn’t especially convenient. Still, the owner is very nice, the rooms are cozy wooden cabins, and the bathhouse and other facilities are spotless. It’s good value and worked out as a great base for Fukushima and Goshikinuma (Five-Colored Nunnery).

A convenience store is close by, so staying without meals could work. The owner is kind, and dinner is often hamburger steak. It’s pretty flavorful and goes really well with rice. The rooms are mostly wood; on a lower floor you may hear footsteps or other noise from upstairs. The bathroom and toilet were both clean and the bath was spacious. That’s why I gave it five stars. The price is reasonable too, so it seems like a good option for mountain climbers and fishermen.