Originally Posted by
MitzEclipse
Thanks for the recommendation - is it this one?
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Re...u_Okinawa.html this appears to be quite a big ryokan, would prefer one of the more traditional ones that are 20ish rooms.
Thanks for the budget figures - yes 30k seems to be the right ballpark with breakfast and dinner. Any other recommendations? and yes I have flexibility, do not need to stay 28 Dec - 3 Jan, can be before or after.
That's the one. I've never used tripadvisor to look at hotels in Jpn, but it seems to me that photos on tripadvisor are not very good.
Look at this one:
https://www.booking.com/hotel/jp/kirishima.html
It seems the hotel's official website does not have an English version. The rate I quoted is from Rakuten Japan which is the same as the official website's rate. You can check to see if you'll get the same rate on English third-party sites... often times you get more packages and lower rates on Japanese engines. Anyways, the rate I gave you is on a traditional Japanese tatami room. I don't think you should necessarily equate more traditional with smaller. This place is sort of a moderate-sized ryokan (<100 rooms). But I've stayed in small ryokans with contemporary wayou (Westernized Japanese) style and French-influenced kaiseki. On the flip side, I've also stayed in large ryokans (~200 rooms) where the entire experience was very traditional. Also, at a lot of the places, whether you have dinner in a restaurant, koshitsu or your guestroom depends on what package you choose. One thing I can tell you, though, is that if you're equating 'more traditional' in your mind with more personalized, then that means you'll need to pay more. Another thing I can tell you is that you will not find many small ryokans (<20rooms) with nice, extensive communal onsen facilities.