Originally Posted by
mdlgto
Thank you! This is an incredible post, aligned perfectly with what we love about Ryokan/Onsen. I've used this to plan our November trip--have stays booked at Wanosanto, looking at Honjin Hiranoya Kachoan or Shogetsu, + Sanso Amanasato.
We stayed at Sankara back in 2016 & would second your opinion + undeveloped tidal onsen on Yakushima are magical (plus easy to rent a car on Yakushima since there is no traffic--the staff at the rental car agency would wave at us every time we drove by during our stay). In Kagoshima, we stayed at Wasure no sato GAJOEN. It may have declined in the past 9 years, but was amazing when we went.
I also want to echo the many, many others here and send a big thank you to
KI-NRT for this incredible thread. It really helped me with planning our trip, and we had an incredible stay at Wanosato a few days ago. We stayed in Garyu Villa, and the team there was spectacular (as was the beef dinner, as mentioned in this thread's write up).
I'm writing this from Fufu Nikko, at the end of our trip, and it's also been (mostly) spectacular.
Thanks again for all of the info, and I will definitely be utilizing this thread again when it comes time to plan the next trip here.