Kujukogen Ginga No Yado Kinoko IIseigo

The hosts are a Korean couple, the hotel is quite far away, and remote, the property as far unlimited facilities, there is an onzen you can book for 45 minutes,, and that’s it. And room cleaning ass is really so so. It’s fine for an overnight stay, but really, it’s far away from everything you wanna get, despite we have a car.

This was a great stay with a local family that runs an inn in the hills outside Taketa. The innkeeper is a friendly older gentleman who can speak some English, but mainly communicates using his online translation app. He is very interested in getting to know the people who stay at his place and initiates conversation to learn more about you. In this way, he is culturally different than many other Japanese people, who are more reserved. Our main purpose for coming to the area was to see Drum Tao, and their location is a 30-minute walk from the inn. We didn't have a car during our trip and took a taxi from Bungo-Taketa, but the innkeeper was willing to drive us to Tao and also to a restaurant a short ways down the road. The innkeeper has also built an observatory on the property and if it is a clear night, he'll invite guests to come and look through his very impressive telescope. On the night we were there, we were able to see the moon, Mars, Jupier, several stars, and the Orion Nebula through the telescope. Not something you get at a standard hotel.

It's inconvenient if you don't have a car, but it's a wonderful environment. The owner was kind and gave me good advice regarding sightseeing when I asked about it. The facility is a bit old so there seems to be room for improvement. It was a very nice hotel for us.