Umi to Irihi No Yado Teisui

An absolute gem! The views stunning, and food is exquisite. The rooms are all recently renovated with wood and in a minimalist style. The hotel had a faint fragrance of cedar? Our rooms each had ocean-facing private baths and panoramic sunset views. I feel so recharged and replenished. The setting is remote but actually not that hard to get to given Japan’s excellent transportation system. It’s 3.8 hours from Tokyo to Akita and then a lovely 50 minutes local train ride to Oga. The ryokan will pick you up. (We opted to book a local shuttle bus as we were seven people with luggage and opted to stop at the Namahage museum beforehand to learn about local lore.) The hotel has a really fun aquarium nearby which kids loved—polar bears, penguins are the main attractions but we also enjoyed the jellyfish and deep sea local fish exhibits. Highly, highly recommend staying here. The staff was incredibly helpful and gracious. Teisui is in on my list as a place to revisit.

Teisui is one of the most polarizing properties we've experienced in Japan. On the one hand, the fact that anything even remotely approaching luxury in the Oga Peninsula of Akita Prefecture should be applauded. The views from the rooms are breathtaking. The hazel-colored onsen bath is soothing. Finally, the story behind the perserverance of the Okami (proprietress) is reason enough to root for the ryokan's success. On the other hand, service is uneven, the food is merely "good" and some of the rooms are not ones we'd ever choose to stay in. Net-net: If we were simply staying here as purely a ryokan experience and did not have intimate interactions with the Okami-san, this likely would have been one of the more underwhelming properties that we will have experienced. First, some background about Teisui that we gleaned from our lengthy conversations with the Okami, Emiko Hirabayashi: Teisui was established in 1992, under a different name, as a midrange boutique hotel. As a result of Oga's remoteness and Japan's economic crash, the owners closed up shop shortly thereafter. It wasn't until 2014 that Emiko's husband, who is based in Tokyo and owns various businesses, decided to purchase and revitalize the property at the urging of a business partner. After attempts by three different GMs to turn the fledgling hotel into a profitable enterprise, he was about to give up when, in 2017 his wife Emiko decided to take on the challenge. She was all set to give up when she learned of the declining onsen quantity from a nearby source that she was reliant upon, and the double whammy of COVID all but made it such that Teisui's future as an ongoing business concern was in major doubt. Her husband's encouragement, however, prompted Emiko to make a bold last stand and double down on Teisui. First, she spent almost a million dollars to dig for an onsen source on site - she hit the jackpot; it was not only viable for bathing, the onsen was also of the rare, brown-ish variety. Second, between 2022 and 2024 she spent $5 million to refresh the building's exterior to a more modern appearance and refurbish the lobby, lounge and all guest rooms. While Teisui still is not operationally in the black, Emiko told us it's getting close, and through continued (good) work of mouth and a bit more guests, she has hopes that it can break even within the next few years. All along, Emiko's goal has been to establish Teisui as a beacon of hope for the locals that strive to increase Oga's stature as a tourist destination, and eventually hand it off to someone who shares the same vision. She does intend to return to Tokyo someday, but not until she finishes what she started. Emiko is also involved in various community projects and organizations, including the protection of the local flora and fauna, and hopes to start a cattle ranch on the peninsula as well. As far as Teisui goes, she hopes to further train the staff members into full-fledged "omotenashi" experts (she admits they're n