I hear you, Singapore based, no Chase UR to go around . I got ~700k IHG points, but spending 120k a night still irks me one way or another.

For the paid rates, often even entry level room goes for 80k JPY or more, we can stay at Kai Aso which is a boutique 12-villa resort in a nature park where each villa has its own outdoor onsen on the patio and it comes with breakfast and kaiseki dinner. Hmm, tough one

I'll potentially use an AMB FWNC (to half the paid rate) and add 1-2 reward nights max. That'll do, then off to Kai Aso for 2-3 nights as we'll have a car anyways. YMMV.