Ryokan Reimei

Some areas of the hotel are dated, and the onsen is quite small. The futons are very comfortable, and the food is good, though some dishes are bland. I’ve seen more variety at other ryokans, and personally, the meals are too large for my wife and me. The restaurant with tatami is very nice. The staff are friendly but could be a little more attentive. There’s a free shuttle to the train station. Overall, it’s a good ryokan, but it doesn’t quite meet the standard it sets for itself. Otherwise, I’d give it four stars.

I spent one night at Yufuin Hisuinoyado Reimei in the Reimei room with a private open-air bath. Unfortunately, it was one of my worst ryokan stays in Japan. The room was very old and poorly maintained. There was no hot water from the faucet near the washroom, which was already unacceptable. The private onsen was unusable. Algae covered the bottom, the surface was slimy and slippery, and the water was only warm, around 37°C, rather than hot enough for an onsen. I went to reception twice to say the private bath wasn’t hot enough. The first time, the receptionist just said “okay.” I thought it would be fixed and went back to the room, but after an hour the temperature hadn’t changed. The second time, I explained the problem again using Google Translate. The receptionist replied through Google Translate that he had already raised the temperature and that it would “take time” to heat up. I waited another two hours, but the water stayed exactly the same. Nothing was done. I then tried the public bath, which has one indoor and one outdoor bath. There were four other men showering inside, and when I started to shower, I found that the shower spouts had no hot water either. I even saw one man scoop water from the bath to rinse himself. When I entered the public baths, I saw a lot of algae on the bottom, and the floor felt slimy and unclean. The food was decent but nothing special, and it certainly didn’t make up for these problems. The ryokan advertises itself as an onsen ryokan, yet every member of my family, both male and female, had the same issues, and none of us could use the onsen. This was extremely disappointing and a disgrace to Japanese tourism and onsen culture. I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. If negative stars were possible, I’d give them.

This was the worst accommodation I’ve ever experienced. The food was poorly prepared and low quality. For the same amount of money, you could get a much better room and meal elsewhere, so don’t waste your time or money here. The public bath floor was slimy and slippery, and the chairs were worn out. The bath water was under 37°C, and I shivered afterward because it was cold. There was also very little water coming from the shower.

The two of us stayed at Ryokan Reimei at the end of March and booked the Reimei room with an open bath. We had the best experience ever and could take a dip whenever we wanted. The shower is outside beside the open bath, but the cold weather didn’t bother us because the shower water was quite warm and we could get straight into the onsen afterward. I’ve seen lots of comments complaining about that. At check-in, we chose the times for dinner, breakfast, and the shuttle bus, and could pick options that suited us. There’s a number to call from the station’s public phone to request pickup. We had no problems with it, and the driver was super nice. The staff speak Japanese and English, so communication was very easy. We even saw a cute Shiba that lives near the ryokan. Dinner and breakfast weren’t true kaiseki, but they were still delicious and filling. We also bought pudding downtown before heading to the ryokan, which I definitely recommend because dinner kaiseki doesn’t include dessert. This wasn’t our first ryokan, and having an open-air bath made the experience 10,000 times better! We’ll definitely choose the same room if we return to Yufuin.