evergrn

One of the most memorable for me was this place in Awara Onsen where we had a room with private rotenburo, karaoke room and ping-pong table. All en-suite. Only in Jpn! Wasn't even that expensive. When you go there, you need to be prepared to stay up all night, maximize the fun. Unfortunately we dozed off, woke up just in time for breakfast, then was already time to check out.

wordsew

Conrad Osaka.....
Stunning View....
Incredible Service.....

clubeurope

There is a ryokan in Kyoto called Yuzu-ya, and as its name suggests it has much to do with Yuzu fruits. Everything is Yuzu scented/inspired, from the toiletries, the food, and even the public baths have Yuzu floating in them (which is a quite nice and unique outside winter solstice times). I stayed there on a quick weekend away from Tokyo one time mid-last year and it was such a great experience. The rooms are quite small, regular for a ryokan but the service was wonderful as expected. The dinner and breakfast meals are exceptional, and very refreshing with the Yuzu taste. The ryokan is next to Yasaka Shrine, and Kyoto is very very nice without the crowd.

5khours

IMHO nearly all hotels, resorts and ryokans in Japan are second rate, the only exception being the old Okura during its heyday.

Pickles

OK Boomer. I see your complaint and raise you a FLW Teikoku.

Q Shoe Guy

5khours

Boomer? Hardly. Gen R here. And if you patronized the FLW Teikoku, my hat's off to you, but I don't play cards with anybody who needs a walker to get to the table.

jib71

I present to you The Millennials - The future of lodging

https://www.themillennials.jp/?fbcli...Ra9LNOej9wecmY

clubeurope

yikes. I get that capsule hotels are so much cheaper but hmmm each to their own. As a millennial, I've stayed at a citizenM hotel and still wasn't a fan.

Pickles

My parents stayed there, and neither uses a walker. During one trip in the early 1990s, we visited Meiji Mura and walked into the FLW Teikoku lobby, and my mom said "I've been here before." I told her she had just carbon-dated herself, since we were in a museum.

Q Shoe Guy

"Generation R is the group of individuals who, during the course of the lockdown, have developed new skills, embraced new paradigms, and have re-adjusted their worldview. They have given up their old way of thinking and have developed a new point of view."

5khours

No Gen R is the small sliver of the population whose childhood and adolescence fortuitously snaked through a brief wrinkle in time allowing them to miss hippies and Sesame St. and disco music.

BuildingMyBento

That's a tough word to pronounce over there.

Nagasaki Joe

Since there are a few onsen mentioned in this thread even though the title says “hotels,” I’ll also share a memorable onsen stay.

Back around 1983, when I was living in Shizuoka Pref., I visited 蓬莱 (Hourai), a traditional ryokan onsen in the town of Atami. I bought a Japanese onsen magazine at a local bookstore and in it, I found an article on this onsen, and the photos of it were stunning, so I really wanted to stay there. Hourai’s founding dates back about 150 years and it has great ocean views from the onsen, as well as the rooms, which each have private hinoki onsen. Its design is very traditional and it has an attractive common onsen on the hillside overlooking the ocean and surrounded by sliding glass doors with an incredible view.

During my stay, when I walked down to the onsen from my room for an evening bath, I passed along a beautiful outdoor stone walkway with a bamboo roof and handrails, and paper lanterns that led me to the onsen entrance. Try as I might, I could find only one changing room with no indication of which gender it was for. I was greatly puzzled and as I stood there scratching my head a family of four (a husband and wife with two children) walked in, took off their clothes, put them in a few of the many baskets lining multiple shelves, and walked into the bathing area. So, as they say, when in Rome... This was my first experience with true mixed-gender bathing, which has gradually died out over the years but still exists here and there. In most mixed-gender baths, the changing rooms will be separate for men and women, but they will share the same bath, which I also inadvertently experienced once in Shizuoka. But baths with one shared changing room for both genders are extremely rare, or so I’ve been told. It was quite by accident that I found it, as the onsen magazine made no mention of the mixed bathing, so it really came as a bit of a shock. I should add, since some of you may think that I accidentally crashed a private bath that can be rented for an hour or two by friends or family (who were too polite to say anything to the uncouth foreign intruder), this was not a private bath, it was the hotel’s one common bath for all guests.

Recently, I saw a press release dated April 2009 stating that this onsen has since become a Hoshino Resort and is jointly operated by Hourai and Hoshino as the Izusan Onsen (also called the KAI Onsen Atami). Current photos show that it has added an outdoor deck (terrace) with a bar and chairs overlooking the ocean, giving it a more contemporary look. The bath remains as I remember it, but I have no idea if the mixed bathing remains; frankly, I doubt it, as times have changed. The website says that the resort is under renovation for the next three years.

https://www.hoshinoresorts.com/en/re...mi-ryokan.html (English)
https://kai-ryokan.jp/atami/hotspring/ (Japanese)

When I visited in the early 80s, the price was 30,000 yen per person per night, which was expensive for that time, and pricey even today for a ryokan onsen. Now, as a Hoshino Resort, it’s probably much more expensive. At the USD/JPY exchange rate of that time, it cost about $125/night per person. I should also add that the food and service were excellent, as they should have been for the price that was paid.

Pickles

I don't know if it's still the case, but the old onsen in Nasu Shiobara had mixed outdoor bathing. Probably not, as the people I went with, which were then new employees at a major company, are now retired.