Itoen Hotel Oze Oigami Sanrakuso

There was no second pillow, and the front desk employee had a bad attitude and manners. They wouldn't help foreign customers get pillows. Sadly, I ended up using a pile of yukatas as pillows.

I really liked the interior design and the service was great. The mushroom Siva dish was really tasty too.

The valley view from the room was good, and I enjoyed the hot springs themselves. The corner room on the fifth floor of the main building was spacious, with six-tatami and ten-tatami rooms looking out over the valley. Since I snore loudly, I moved my futon into the larger room, which meant my friends weren't disturbed. The first-floor main building bath was fairly clean, with a good temperature balance: hot indoors and a little cooler outside. The valley and river views, running water, and breeze made soaking satisfying. There were some good points at meals. The automatic Super Dry beer dispenser made a nice beer-to-foam ratio, and it felt like the essence of Itoen Hotels. Dinner and breakfast were worth the price, food was replenished quickly, and the freshly cooked rice was delicious. The dining room staff's smiles stayed with me. I also enjoyed buying local wild vegetables at the Oigami Onsen morning market and seeing the giant snake mikoshi display at the Oigami Festival. But the room's fifth-floor toilet had a cracked bowl, a misaligned bidet, and an odd smell. As a large person, I found it difficult to use, so I went to the toilet by reception in the main building every time. The shared toilets on floors three through six were all Japanese-style, which was inconvenient. The main building's indoor and outdoor public baths were both small, and it was disappointing to find the water hose for adding water in the tub. The annex smelled damp and old. Its indoor bath was unusable because of construction, while the large outdoor bath had no view and didn't feel relaxing. It was also a concern that the men's and women's baths switch, with everyone required to leave at the designated time. The meals had only about 70-80% as many dishes as at other Itoen Hotels, and there were just two kinds of ice cream. I saw someone serving rice in a deep dish, perhaps because rice bowls had run out. As the trip planner, I regretted telling my friends about the specially ordered spiny lobster plan, standard plus 4,950 yen, since it didn't meet expectations. Around the hotel, most souvenir shops and restaurants within walking distance were closed. Even on a morning stroll, many buildings looked shut, and the town lacked the lively feel of a traditional hot spring resort. The Asahi Hotel, now closed, and Kanzanso, temporarily closed, were once representative inns in the Oigami Onsen area but had become ruins, adding to the area's desolate feel. This left a very different impression from the Itoen Hotels I've used before, and in its current state I think returning would be difficult. I hope renovations and improvements to operations can bring back the place's charm.