Towards the end of our upcoming trip to Japan we will be leaving Osaka on a Saturday around noon and the Sunday night we will be staying at Narita. I want to find a ryokan for the Saturday night in between these two places. One that is really good, authentic, and preferably a bit remote but nothing too excessive travel wise. Looking at around �300/ $475 for 2 for the night.

Looked at hakone and izu but only a few stood out.

Any thoughts appreciated!

Alright, nobody responded so I will try. If you want ryokan experience somewhere between Osaka and Tokyo, then as you said first thing come to my mind is Izu and Hakone area. Izu and Hakone area will not be direct from Shinkan-sen (Bullet train). For Izu you need to make a transfer at either Mishima or Atami. For Hakone you need to make a transfer at Odawara.

Also Mishima should have a lot of ryokans, which you can get directly by Shinkan-sen. However, question I have is that you mentioned that you looked into Izu and Hakone area ryokans and few stood out. If you can be more specific about what you are exactly looking for your stay at ryokans. Because there are a lot of ryokans at Izu and Hakone area, and if only very few stood out for you then I am guessing that you have very specific things you are looking for your stay at ryokans. If you can explain us what are those specifics then maybe able to help you more.

If you don't have much time, you might want to just go for Mishima or Atami. That way you just hop of the train and are basically there.

There are so many exquisite ryokans in Hakone and Izu, that you must be saying none stood out because either you can't decide amongst too many great choices or you're not searching well.

Izu has a lot of great ryokans, but a lot of the best ones are only accessible by long bus rides. There are many places in train-accessible places in Izu like Ito, Ajiro and Nagaoka, but I think you'll like the atmosphere in Hakone better than those places. Hakone covers a wide area, and some places may take 1.5 hours to get to from Odawara while Hakone-Yumoto is only 15min by train. Area of Hakone with best selection of high-class ryokans that is nearest & most accessible from Odawara would be Miyanoshita / Gora area. Unless you're looking for a room with en-suite rotenburo, most places will be below your budget.