Okay, So I have travelled to over 70 different countries and stayed in more hotels, inns, hostels, ryokans, cabins, and resorts, than I could ever attempt to count… so when I say this is without a doubt my FAVOURITE HOTEL in the entire world, I have a lot of different accomodations in my past that I am comparing it to.
When I was making arrangements for this trip back in April, I had originally intended to stay a couple of nights in a more Western style hotel closer to the old part of Takayama where the transport issues are – until I saw a Japanese video posted by someone who had stayed at this ryokan. It just looked amazing and I have been looking forward to it for six months. The entrance to the hotel is fairly unassuming – perfectly manicured gardens are ‘de rigeur’ here and seem quite common everywhere. But just on the other side of those shrubberies is a world all of its own… a large koi pond featuring equally large koi. A cute little walkway over the pond which leads to and onsen foot bath (fresh hot mineral waters piped into a knee deep bath where you can remove your socks and shoes and soak your weary feets). An outdoor lounging area that wasn’t seeing much use given it was max temps of 10-11C while we were here and lows of 4C and 2C overnight.We were welcomed by a lovely young lady named Kyaka, who checked us in, brought us some drinks, hot towels and showed us through the quiet and dimly lit hallway to our room.The decor was very traditional, except for the slightly elevated futon beds. In the room waiting for us was some snacks, and green tea and an explanation of where to find things in the room – yukata and jinbei (Japanese style pyjamas) to wear, a bunch of amenities for us, and an opportunity to specify what time we would like to have dinner and breakfast etc. The bathroom was neat and all panelled in fresh cypress – it smelled amazing!

And had a traditional Japanese shower space and a large and deep cypress tub inside.But the best bit… omg! So excited – was the stonking huge granite onsen bath in our own private garden. <3 I couldn’t wait for Kyaka to finish her introduction so we could have a shower, scrub up and then slide into this amazingly beautiful bath in this cute little garden space. The bath was a steady 40-41C and was just bliss. The water at this particular onsen comes from 1200 feet below ground and is particularly high in minerals which make the water so soft it feels kinda slippery… it was so steamy as the ambient temperature was only about 8C or so.In what is now become quite our usual habit, we shared some saké acquired on our way to the ryokan and had a good soak. Love it!

After some work and another soak in the bath, it was time for dinner. Our dinners were served in a private dining room on the second floor of the hotel – and Kyaka was looking after us for dinner also.The ryokan has some lovely open spaces that guests can use if they wish, but we hardly saw anyone – in fact with the private onsen in our little garden, and having a meal in a private dining room, we could swear for most of our visit that there was hardly anyone else staying at the inn. The only give away was the shoes all lined up in the morning as people were getting ready to check out or go to town for the day. There are no shoes worn on the tatami mats here, only tabi socks. Even the staff are silently walking up and down the hallways in socks.Dinner was a multiple course kaiseki meal – starters consisted of:
– mustard paste inside a slice of lotus root
– minced fish and chicken with poppy seeds
– cooked shrim in ginger
– mackerel sushi with vinegar
– boiled quail egg boiled in persimmon juice
– grilled eggplant and yam cake topped with sesame sauce
– pickled and marinated koi

Oishi! So delicious. Matsutake mushroom soup with shrimp, pike and eel.Sashimi – roasted Hida beef with plum flavoured onion sauce. Sashimi – amberjack and mackerel.Local saké. Steam turnip with mushrooms and lily root, stuffed with ginkgo nut.Hida beef steak with vegetables.Grilled freshwater sweetfish stuffed with roe.Whipped pumpkin topped with abalone.Local steamed rice, miso soup with mushrooms, tofu and pickles.Sweet potato cake and seasonal fruits… I love the little maples leaves they are decorating our meals with seeing as it is autumn. You just know someone in the kitchen is tasked with finding the prettiest leaves for the job.After such an amazing meal, we let our dinner settle and then it was back into the onsen again… I could really get used to this. You can just feel the tension draining away from all your muscles, and even though the air temperature was quite cold, the water was so inviting that you barely noticed it.

I slept like a log! Possibly due to the very busy week we’ve had? Possibly due to the quietness of our little garden with the water trickling in the background? Possibly due to the nice firm futon mattress? Or (more likely) due to an elegant sufficiency of saké!

Woke early and opened up the paper screens to see this beautiful setting – and well, had plenty of time for another soak before breakfast, so why not?Breakfast was another lavish affair of itty bitty dishes filled with very tasty things!The menu was rather more casual for breakfast, which was excellent. 🙂

Oh wouldn’t you know it – the onsen beckoned once more before we had to head to town for the day.When we returned from doing transport stuff in the city, I had an opportunity to pop into the ladies public onsen in the hotel. Not all rooms here have a private bath like we have booked and there is a men’s and ladies onsen baths that swap over day to day so you can try the different bathing spaces. There were dressing tables for about six people, all full of amenities – soaps, lotions, shampoos, conditioners etc. A space for dressing and changing and to store your clothing while you bathed.A post-onsen relaxation space where you could have complimentary cold beverages and even try out a massage chair.And, as the onsen was unoccupied I was able to take a photograph of the baths here. The Japanese are very ritualistic about their baths – which I love, but one of their customs is that tattooed peoples re not allowed in public onsens. Some ryokan will make exceptions for their Western guests (as we are highly unlikely to be connected to local organised crime gangs) but others are very strict and ask you to cover your ink. I have no idea what the policy is here – I didn’t ask… but it was the primarily motivator for booking a room with a private bath. That and bathing with strange people who you don’t share a common language with gets pretty boring pretty fast. So we didn’t make use of the public onsen and made use of our private garden bath again! I’m so enamoured of this little garden oasis – I took so many photos. Oh more saké before dinner? Don’t mind if I do!Prior to arriving I had requested the special Hida beef kaiseki meal on our second night. It was at a small additional cost, but given Gifu is so famous for their Hida beef, we felt it would be worth it. Kyaka kept referring to it as the ‘Too Much Beef Dinner’, which we thought was cute.

The appetisers tonight were:
– small salmon sushi
– shrimp grilled with poppy seed
– apricot jelly
– Mozuku seaweed
– stewed conger eel with soy-sauce jelly
– stewed broad bean
– deep fried chestnut with fish paste

A rare selfie taken in our private dining room… the ‘glow’ is the saké, of course. 😛

Sashimi: sweet shrimp, tuna, yellowtail.
Grilled Hida beef sushi.

Conger pike dumpling.Hida beef steak

Hida smoked beef (on Sakura cherry wood) with plum flavoured onion… there was a wisp of smoked trapped under the glass bell, and it was so beautiful presented and tasty!

Hida beef shabu-shabu

Local rice, filefish soup.

Dessert of purple yam on a sakura pudding and yuzu sorbet.

The meals here are quite the experience – trying new things, sampling new tastes, preparing each mouthful to get a complimentary combination of flavours. It was quite late before we felt up to getting back into the onsen. I’m going to miss this!

For a late night snack, we had some Takayama Pudding-tei that we bought back from town with us… no word of a lie, this is creme brûlée in a jar.

Next morning, we had opted for western breakfast which consisted of ‘Way Too Much Food’! Toast, an egg to scramble on the little stove, a salad, some muesli, seasonal fruits, and not pictured – English breakfast tea. All lovingly presented and wonderfully fresh.
As a parting gift, Kyaka gave us some chopsticks as an unexpected gift. A very thoughtful touch.

So, yeah. My this is now my favourite hotel EVER! I have stayed at the Waldorf-Astoria with a view down Fifth Avenue in New York. I have stayed at the Hotel Fortuna in Rome, with a view over the Trevi Fountain. I have stayed at the Four Seasons in Sydney, with a glorious view over Sydney Harbour. I have stayed at the Grand Hotel in Prague, with an uninterrupted view of the astronomical clock. I have stayed at Samphire on Rottnest Island with the quokkas. I have stayed at an Adnaan Resort in the Maldives… so yeah, when I say that of all the hotels/inns/resorts that I have stayed at, this place is now my favourite hotel ever, I’m not kidding. It was absolutely amazing… and I look forward to coming back again some day.