Notsu Ryokan

Really nice, comfy hotel. The Onsen was amazing, and so was breakfast!

We spent three nights here with breakfast and dinner included. The meals were outstanding, and the menus changed daily. I especially appreciated having the dinner set menu translated into English. Our clean, spacious room had a good river view. The public bath had both indoor and outdoor areas, and views from each.

Matsue has hot spring water right in the city, so for us, staying at an onsen ryokan instead of a hotel was a perfect fit. It’s less than a 10-minute walk from JR Matsue and about 25 minutes from Bataden Shinjiko Onsen Station, with a good spot for sightseeing and shopping. We took day trips to Izumo Taisha and Adachi Museum. The room was enormous, with the features you’d expect in a Japanese-style room, plus a table with regular chairs as well as the usual low table and chairs. We had city and river views, and were near the public baths. Those baths were marvellous. The indoor bath had a stunning corner view, even better than the one from our room. There was also a small outdoor bath for about three people. The water was soft and hot, and the view made it even more relaxing. Sometimes other people were there, but usually we had it to ourselves. We stayed three nights on a Japanese-room plan with breakfast and dinner. The staff mostly spoke Japanese with us, but they were super helpful and knew enough English to make things clear. They let us check in two hours early and kept our luggage on departure day. They also explained small details, like dinner being served in the banquet hall one evening instead of the restaurant. Breakfast was delicious each day. It included an onsen egg, pickles, stewed vegetables, fish cake, rice, tea, and local clam miso soup. There was cooked fish every morning, which I think was red snapper with ginger sauce. Aside from the egg, soup, rice, and tea, the other dishes changed daily. It was satisfying without being too filling, and I was ready for lunch at lunchtime. :-) Dinner was extravagant. We didn’t pay for special extras, though Shimane Wagyu and individual add-ons were available. The chef’s appetizers on the first night were served in the Warigo Soba style, an Izumo tradition of layering noodles. Each dinner was kaiseki, but the meals took a different direction each night. We had shabu shabu with Shimane beef one night, grilled beef in an earthenware pot another, and steamed Spanish mackerel another night. A previous reviewer had said the food was the same every night, but ours was so varied that it was hard to compare the dinners. I thought about upgrading to Shimane wagyu for one night, but didn’t really try. It’s annoying that several ryokan reservation systems only let you book the same plan for every night. We also enjoyed reasonably priced local sake with dinner each evening. There were two things we struggled with. The room temperature was hard to manage: the heat was either too high or it felt cold. Maybe we should have left the heat on and used the window to adjust things, or perhaps we just didn’t understand the electronic thermostat. The Wi-Fi was also finicky, both to join and to keep connected.

A good-value ryokan with lovely rooms, some looking out over the river. The staff were kind and helpful, and breakfast was excellent, although we didn’t have dinner there. There isn’t much English spoken, but everything is labelled and easy to find. Recommended :)