I visited Wanosato with a group of close friends last year when one of them discovered your post while researching ryokans. I'm no stranger to Japan having visited almost semi-annually in my childhood but only now have been able to afford luxury accomodations like staying at ryokans (weak yen really helped too). In a really rough year I'm glad I got some memories in the tail end of sitting at breakfast watching the beautiful mountain stream and drinking tea. It was absolutely lovely and convinced me to look and book another ryokan for my next visit.
I'm visiting Japan in October with my partner and was very nervous about choosing a ryokan but managed to find a room at Hakone Suishoen that worked for our schedule. Really looking forward to Suishoen now with how it was included in this post.
Again thank you
KI-NRT for making such an amazingly detailed post. For someone like me who's a complete stranger to the world of luxury this was invaluable in building a mental model of what to look for or expect when deciding which ryokan to book. Your post really does as advertised! "A Primer + Impressions!"