Originally Posted by
stargold
All of this would be fine for a short stay of 1-2 nights, for which I do not doubt that Hoshinoya can provide an interesting and novel experience, but devoting all 6 nights of a Tokyo stay to Hoshinoya feels to me like a very heavy opportunity cost compared to what a more conventional luxury hotel can provide.
Even the whole taking the shoes off at the entrance thing feels like an interesting twist at the beginning but quickly gets old.
Haha you misunderstand, I'm not advocating for Hoshinoya. In fact, given their well documented issues that include their Fuji and lower-end KAI properties, I'd not recommend staying there at all (one can always get a proper ryokan experience within an hour's ride from Tokyo if interested). I'm just pointing out the different cultural context that makes Hoshinoya seem worse than it really is.
In fact, your comment about the shoes exactly proves my point. The taking off of shoes is not an "interesting twist", or some cultural ceremony like a welcome dance at a safari camp. It isn't even an inconvenience in a Japanese context, because your shoes either come off at the front door (homes, ryokans, old restaurants with tatami mats), or the first thing upon opening the door of one's hotel room anyway. The fact that such an everyday habit is a negative point at all, along with the lack of gym, really shows that we are trying to evaluate a ryokan by western expectations, which seems slightly unfair.
It'll be like me checking into a Caribbean beach resort and complaining that the tub doesn't fill itself and keep itself warm, or that the toilet bowl isn't heated and doesn't have dual bidets. Different expectations.