What a great thread - after stumbling across this we decided to change our upcoming Feb '11 trip itinerary to include a day & night at a place like this. Any further recommendations given the following guidelines?:

- would prefer to 'stop' on the way from Tokyo to Kyoto, spending an afternoon, night, and following morning in the area
- looking for a traditional ryokan experience, including kaiseki meal, and preferable a private onsen (in room, or bookable)
- as much as it contradicts the previous point, we'd like it to be at least a bit westerner friendly (in terms of: ease of booking, getting there, and basic communication with staff when we're there)

I read a bit about Shibu Onsen near Nagoya, specifically the Kokuya Ryokan in Yudanaka:
http://www.ichizaemon.com/lang_en/

Looks great, the snow monkeys would be fun to see, and reviews of the Kokuya are excellent. My only concern is travel effort from Tokyo to there (2.5hrs), and then onwards to Kyoto (about 4-5hrs?).

What about a place that's a bit more in between Tokyo and Kyoto, like Hakone? I found two places (haven't really done a full search yet):
http://www.asebino.com/
http://www.ryokancollection.com/eng/...ubSection=room

Asebino looks amazing, but doesn't appear to have an english website, I'm worried we'd be hopelessly lost arranging our stay, I can't even figure out how much it costs. The other one (Asaba) looks fine, and has some decent tripadvisor reviews.

We'd be perfectly happy going to Shibu, but is Hakone just as nice? It's obviously better in terms of being on the way from Tokyo to Kyoto.