Hotel Vison

The property feels peaceful and secluded, and it seems like a great base for exploring Mie Prefecture. I was there as part of a Japanese Grand Prix tour and found the hotel very comfortable, with excellent service. I ate at three on-site restaurants and enjoyed all the meals. I also had breakfast at the bakery one morning, and the pastries were delicious. I didn’t have time to look around the stores, but they seemed really interesting, so I’d like to return.

Give yourself at least two days here if you want to explore at an easy pace. VISON village, where HOTEL VISON is located, has a collection of carefully chosen shops and restaurants, each with its own experience. There are specialty stores focused on Japanese food essentials like dashi, miso, sake, vinegar, soy sauce, seaweed, and traditional herbal ingredients. Some offer tastings, and the products are beautifully presented. The village is thoughtfully designed and gives you a sense of the depth and refinement of Japanese culture. HOTEL VISON is a lovely place to slow down and explore its culinary and cultural traditions.

The mountain setting is beautiful, and the hotel buildings are tasteful and well designed. But the different facilities are spread across the mountain. Most restaurants are downhill, so getting there means a long walk with stairs or escalators. That layout seems difficult for older guests and families with small children. We had a frustrating check-in. The male staff member handling it couldn’t answer basic questions or explain the facilities properly. Breakfast and dinner were included in our booking, but when we asked where to eat, he told us to reserve online. We said we couldn’t do that and asked for help, but he didn’t know how to use the system either. He didn’t ask a colleague for assistance, and the delay dragged on. Eventually, he said only one restaurant took walk-ins. We walked down to that restaurant, only to be told dinner wasn’t included there. The restaurant staff kindly called around and found that the hotel had already booked us a specific restaurant. It left us wondering whether the check-in staff had given us wrong or careless information. Breakfast was disappointing as well. The menu had about ten options, but nearly all the Japanese-style breakfast slots were already full, even though we checked in around 5:00 p.m. I later saw similar complaints about the dining arrangements in other reviews. The bathing area looked nice, but it had very few amenities. There was no water dispenser, facial cleanser, or skincare, just a hair dryer. The design and facilities are good and tasteful, but service and management were extremely poor.

The place is huge, and getting from the lobby to the room or the onsen takes a long walk. The room itself was spacious and simply decorated in a Muji style. The onsen is near the lobby. Its water isn’t hot spring water, but herbal and floral water. It’s spacious, though it was dirty when we went, with hair floating all over the surface. The outdoor bath was only lukewarm, and there were insects in the water. Shampoo and shower cream were provided, but there was no body lotion in the changing room, and the hair dryer wasn’t good. Breakfast needs to be reserved in advance, or the option you want may not be available. You can choose from five or six restaurants and different time slots. We picked 9:00am for the ochazake set, a traditional Japanese breakfast, but some of us didn’t enjoy it because the choices were too limited. We wandered around the huge property, shopped for local goods at the organic farm house, then got coffee at sarutahiko. The coffee and matcha were sooo good, definitely worth trying!