Thank you so much to Keita for all the wonderful advice (on and off the forum!). My wife and I have now visited Asaba, Takefue and Myoken Ishiharaso,

For context, we love luxury travel, but are especially drawn to picturesque places in idyllic settings.

Of the 3 aforementioned ryokans, our favourite - just by a hair - is Asaba. Important to note here that we would only recommend staying in the Hagi Suite, as the proximity to the babbling brook outside our window is just magical. We haven't stayed in Tenko, so we can't speak to that; but we've stayed in Hagi twice now, and I can't think of many places in the world there are more tranquil and restorative for the soul. The only one tiny drawback, if one needed to split hairs, is that the food isn't as spectacular as, say, Myoken Ishiharaso. But the experience is still wonderful, and we plan to return regularly in the future. It helps also that it's such an easy trip from Tokyo (~45 minute train ride from Tokyo Station to Mishima).

Our second favourite is Myoken Ishiharaso. The property is set in a spellbinding fairytale setting, and as opposed to Asaba (where we truthfully spent all our time sitting in our suite), we spent a lot of time visiting the various onsens on site. Our favorite was the open air mixed bath where we spent many hours enjoying the onsen, and reading by the river. The food is the best we've had at any Ryokan, and truthfully better than most restaurants we visited in Tokyo and Kyoto (we made the risky and unfortunate decision to dine at Sushi M in Tokyo this time round, where the wine was interesting, but the food forgettable). We didn't book far enough in advance to secure Rurimusaki (the largest suite on site), and instead stayed in Suou (a modern Western Suite) and Tsubiya (a more traditional Japanese suite). Of the two, we we would definitely recommend staying at Tsubiya. The hardware is a little aged (which may deter some people), but the setting is far better on the basement level which is as close as it gets to the river. In fact there are only 2 suites on that level - Tsubiya, and Rurimusaki (which is right beside it). Suou's hardware was more modern, and it was priced accordingly, but we far preferred Tsubiya. As mentioned earlier, the food is absolutely spectacular, and the location is really convenient (just 15 minutes from Kagoshima airport). We will be back!

Takefue. Ah, the surprising one. Based on all the reviews, we expected to really love this property (though, admittedly, we were already drawn to Asaba and Ishiharaso based on proximity to rivers) but it's probably the property that resonated the least (because we just love rivers!), but we can certainly appreciate why it is the most popular ryokan (for most people, it will likely be)! The hardware was by far the best amongst the 3, and the location is really pretty set in its own bamboo forest. We stayed in Sayo (the largest suite), as well as Shien An. As mentioned, the hardware is awesome - the rooms are very thoughtfully designed, with all sorts of cool and quirky architectural elements (we loved the Sisyphus coffee table!). We've never liked a theater room on vacation as much as the one in Sayo, and the 4 different onsens in Shien An were really fun. But the overall setting just didn't feel as soul nourishing, to us at least. The food was pretty decent - the dessert in particular were excellent.. I highly recommend booking Chikuju No Ma ahead of your visit (thankfully we did as all the prime slots were taken by the time we arrived) - by far the nicest private onsen on property, and second only to the onsens at Ishiharaso. If you do decide to pair this with Ishiharaso, the drive down south is absolutely stunning.

Hope folks find this helpful! Thanks again Keita!