Sumiyoshiya

The hospitality from the Sumiyoshiya staff was excellent, and the food was delicious, which made what happened especially disappointing. I stayed from August 1st to 2nd, 2025. Early on the 2nd, I took a relaxing bath in the 5th-floor open-air bath while looking out over the fishing port. After I’d finished bathing and got dressed, a man in his 60s opened the entrance door. It was fine because I was already dressed, but I couldn’t forgive it if he’d opened it before then. The entrance is shared by men and women, while the bath entrance has blue and red noren curtains. Anyone could tell the red one was for women, and I’m convinced he opened the door on purpose while it was in place. I would have liked a sign on the curtain or door saying “men only” or “women only.”

The hot spring water was good, even though the large bath was small. I enjoyed a relaxing soak in the rooftop open-air bath, which smelled of cypress, perhaps because it was still fresh. My room looked out over the ocean, but the weather kept me from seeing the sunset. There was plenty of fish at meals, which is nice if you like fish. The sashimi boat platter was good, but the crab was watery, probably frozen, and didn’t have much crab flavor. I was shocked by how dry the squid somen noodles at breakfast were. I’d been looking forward to dinner, so that was disappointing. The futons were already laid out when I returned to my room, leaving barely enough space for two people to walk around. The guest rooms were small, the doors stuck when I opened or closed them, and the toilets were inconvenient. At check-in, nobody greeted me at the front desk. The person who answered the doorbell explained the facilities in a flat, unfriendly way and left it at that. The person handling checkout was unfriendly too. Staff were unhelpful at check-in, around the building, at dinner and breakfast, and at checkout. They didn’t greet or smile, which was disappointing. For a service business, I think they could do more to improve.

A place with an old Showa-era feel. The water wasn’t available until evening even though it was the weekend, and I was disappointed that the cypress open-air bath couldn’t be used. The food was so-so, and this was the first disappointing inn I’ve stayed at in a long time. The one good thing is that there’s a FamilyMart nearby.

We had a class reunion here with over 30 people, and rented the inn’s snack bar for the after-party. It made the gathering with old friends memorable. The food was delicious, just as expected, and the owner even brought us some alcohol, which really livened things up. It rained that day, so we couldn’t go out. Apparently the view from Hakusan-hime Shrine, right behind the inn, is magnificent.