Tenpyo Ryokan

Even though it's in a busy shopping area, our room was quiet and peaceful, with hardly any outside noise. It was clean and very comfortable, and we appreciated the facilities and kind staff. The station is just a short walk away, and the park, museums, and temples are a little farther on.

The location is good, breakfast is excellent, and the staff are very kind. Guests get a yukata, and there's a shared bath with a hot pool. Still, this doesn't feel like a traditional Japanese stay. The hotel is inside a covered market street, which wasn't obvious from the photos at first. The rooms felt poorly designed, with fake Japanese touches, plastic tatami, no light, and a concrete wall just 20 cm away. The air conditioning was very loud, and the stairs and corridors were poor. You can leave baggage only until 16.00. It's definitely not a ryokan, and at the premium price I don't think it's worth it.

The paper hotpot breakfast was good, and the service was good too. You need to book a breakfast time because they prepare the kami-nabe shortly beforehand, so it's ready when you sit down. The rooms were a good size, though adjusting the water was annoying because the toilet had separate hot and cold knobs. The onsen was quite good, and I'd shower there instead of in the room. The hotel sits at the entrance to a shopping street, but we found it hard to locate. We had to pull over on the main road to carry our bags inside and search for it. The car park was about a two-minute drive away, which is a bit inconvenient if you're driving. There was basically no view, since the building is squeezed between other buildings.

The rooms were quiet and fairly spacious for a ryokan, and the location is handy, next to the park and on a street with shops and places to eat. The downsides were the limited, quite small bath and the timing: check-in starts at 4pm, checkout is already at 10am, and they called us right at 10:01. Breakfast wasn't included.