Nishimuraya Honkan

must try in life. The staff are super friendly and warm. Garden view is very well designed. In the early morning you can hear birds singing. The hotel has two in-house onsens which are way better than other public onsens in the town in my opinion.

This was our first (and only) Ryokan in Japan, and we wanted it to be special. They did not disappoint. The building is beautiful, and retains an old world charm. Staff were professional and so friendly. We had a ground floor room with a private outdoor onsen, and that made the stay so special as it was cold and rainy outside and hanging out in our own "hot bath" was fabulous. Sleeping on futons on the floor wasn't so bad (for two nights). Breakfast and dinner were amazing. So wonderful having Kaiseki dinner served in our room while we were dressed in yukata clothing provided by the hotel. We didn't try the hotel's onsen, but did go to two others outside. Our favorite onsen was right next door - Goshono-Yu. Treat yourself if you can and stay here.

Nishimuraya Honkan is a very expensive ryokan at Kinosaki onsen town, especially during Matsuba crab season, but it is worth it for the superb environment, service and food. I arrived on an early train from Osaka around 1 pm, was escorted to the coffee lounge to complete check in procedures and told I could return at 2 pm and be shown to my room and provided with my onsen pass to visit all 7 public onsen baths of Kinosaki onsen. It is well worth it to arrive early before check in time for the ryokans and to take a later train out on your departure day. Early arrival will allow you to hike or take the ropeway up to Onsenji temple and follow the tradition of praying to the onsen guardian for a blessing before taking to the waters of Kinosaki onsen. Late departure will allow you to make full use of the onsen pass that is included in the price of most ryokans as the pass is valid from 3 pm to 3 pm of the next day. Generally busy times at the public baths are 3 pm to dinner time, then after dinner to closing at 11 pm and then early morning on opening until normal check out time for ryokans of 11 am, so late morning and early afternoon are usually quiet times at the public baths, handy for those who are trying to complete the onsen circuit of all 7 public baths in Kinosaki onsen during their one day stay. I was assigned a garden view room on the ground floor and had a fabulous view of the courtyard garden. It is well designed so that I never see other rooms eventhough many are arranged around the courtyard garden. Everything in Nishimuraya Honkan is beautiful, well maintained and serenely tasteful. My room was quite large with a large combined sleeping and sitting tatami mat area with a low table for the in room dinner service, which is then pushed to the side when staff set out the futon bedding after dinner. There is also a separate sitting area by the window that has more Western style chairs that are more comfortable to sit on than the traditional flat to the ground Japanese chairs. There is a bathroom by the entry foyer with a sink and a separate bathroom with a tub and hand shower. The toilet though is off in another part of the room by the sitting area by the window. I found the room very comfortable and slept very well on the futon bedding. Nishimuraya has two public boths that are alternated between men and women with the larger bath reserved for men during the afternoon and evening and the smaller bath reserved for men in the morning, and vice versa for women. Each bath has a larger indoor pool and a smaller outdoor pool. It was rarely occupied by more than one other person when I visited the baths during my two night stay as the 7 public baths are the much bigger attraction, being generally larger, more diverse in setting and much nicer in many cases. Most visitors seem to focus on the public baths and completing the pilgrimage to all 7 and stamping their special souvenir map with the unique stamps of each of the 7

I had high hopes for staying in a Relais & Chateaux property. I was disappointed. After staying in so many wonderful ryokans in Western Honshu, I found that this ryokan was old and had not been updated in many years. The in suite hot tub was a small, dark, windowless room. Once I saw it, I didn't want to use it. Instead, I went to a facility down the street. The bedding was traditional. Futons were put out while we were at dinner. I added an extra layer myself. It was comfortable enough to get some sleep, but the room felt quite cramped compared to every other place I had stayed in Western Honshu. I didn't feel any connection to the staff, although they did their jobs adequately. It seemed, to me, they were more "corporate" than the ryokans that I stayed in previously and were family owned. The gardens that I could see from my room were quite beautiful.