Hello! Following up (quite belatedly) on some recommendations that I followed through on -- thanks again to KI-NRT and everyone else for your help! We had a gorgeous trip earlier this year, staying at Myoken Ishiharaso in Kagoshima, Onyado Kawasemi in Fukushima, and Yamamizuki Bettei in Kurokawa Onsen. And it was such a fun trip, in fact, that we're already planning another!

First, I'll give a quick summary of our experience at the places we stayed last time, for anyone who might be interested in visiting. Then, if you'll bear with me, I'd love your recommendations for our next trip.

Context: we are a couple in our 30s and we visited all three in January 2025.

Since we were arriving in Fukuoka, and were on our way down to Kagoshima, we had planned Kurokawa Onsen as our first stop, and chose to stay at Yamamizuki Bettei. From this thread we knew that YB would not be a properly luxurious option, but that it was a top pick for a scenic, rustic stay in Kurokawa. That sounded good, at the time -- in retrospect, we should have done more research. While the weather in Fukuoka and Kagoshima was quite mild, inland, at Kurokawa, everything was snow and ice. While Yamamizuki Bettei had perfectly acceptable facilities for onsen, it seems like the best part of Kurokawa is walking around and taking the public baths -- not an option in that kind of weather. Fortunately, our room was large and beautiful (we stayed riverside) and we had one of the coziest nights of my life, watching the snow fall outside. It felt like we'd time travelled to the Edo period, although the whining of the heating system broke the spell, at times. As for the food, it was nothing special.

Would I go back? Maybe if I was in the area, during nicer weather. But I doubt I'd go out of my way.

After making our way down to Kagoshima, and staying with friends for a few nights, we circled back up to Myoken Ishiharaso in Kirishima. This was a much more positive experience. It's hard for me to imagine how a ryokan could be more perfectly suited to our tastes than MI. For that, I'm grateful to you all -- thank you so much for the recommendation, I had truly one of the best nights of my life staying here. Everything about it was perfect for us: multiple private baths right next to the river, impeccable service, tasteful details everywhere, mind-blowing food. It was the stuff of dreams.

What to say? Everything felt intentional, and executed with a great sense of taste. I eat out at a lot of fine dining restaurants, and the kaiseki at Myoken Ishiharaso was one of the best meals of my life. A big part of why our experience was so great was our room attendant, who spoke perfect English -- he could describe, at length, the seasonality of the food, the provenance of the tableware etc. and that of course made our experience much richer. Every dish was local, hyper-seasonal, produce-driven... and just plain delicious. It's an incredible place. The entire facility is beautifully designed. Bathing in the steam while mallards paddle down waterfalls, just a few feet away... It's a cliche, perhaps, but it was just magical.

My only minor, minor complaint would be that their sauna room is tiny, barely fitting three people. I'm more of a sauna/cold plunge type (which is perhaps to say, a Westerner) and there were times when I couldn't fit in the sauna. But for people who prefer to soak, there are beautiful baths galore. Not a big deal.

Would I go back? I will be back. It was an unequivocal 10/10, in my book. Hopefully next time we'll spend two nights, or more. Ok I'll stop gushing now.

Lastly, after finishing our Kyushu itinerary and flying to Tokyo, we left the city for a night to travel up north to Fukushima, and stay at Onyado Kawasemi, where we had a nice time: full stop. I was nothing too special: no "magic" per se. Maybe that's fine -- maybe because of our experience at Myoken Ishiharaso, our expectations were too high. Because, to be clear, Onyado Kawasemi is definitely a luxurious experience. The room was very, very comfortable. For the first time, we had a private onsen, and it was lovely. The shared onsen was nice too. No complaints at all. And the food was good, with many status ingredients like karasumi, ankimo, abalone etc. However, it all felt a bit dated, and soulless.

That would be my summary, all told: luxurious, but a bit dated, and soulless. Very comfortable, just not so charming. The surrounding area certainly isn't doing the ryokan any favors. We found the locale as charming (at least in winter) as a suburban cul-de-sac.

Would I go back? Maybe, if I was nearby, and I wanted to relax and unwind somewhere very comfortable, without any expectations. It was a nice experience. But I certainly wouldn't make the effort to travel from Tokyo again.

Hopefully this is helpful for some of you planning a trip! Happy to answer questions, as best I can.

Finally, like I mentioned before, I'd love some advice for our upcoming trip! This time I will be with my whole family -- 6 people, including my elderly parents -- and we are looking to stay at a ryokan for two nights next March, somewhere between (or accessible from) Tokyo and Kanazawa. As you can tell from my above reviews, we value tasteful, intentional design, good local/seasonal food, and a lovely locale, with lots of character. We have some large tattoos in the group so nothing overly traditional, and also my mom is in a wheelchair, so we need to find a place that is handicap accessible.

For some family members this will be their first trip to Japan -- Hakone is an obvious option, as such, but I'd be interested in any and all ideas. Again, thank you all!