Guntu
 

Has anyone actually taken a cruise on this unlikely looking ship? Guntû official website It looks to be a floating ryokan, cruising around the inland sea. A search of this site has only yielded one poster is curious about it, no one who's actually been on a cruise.
I'm about to book a cruise a year from now around the art islands. Figure it will be a way for the wife to see the art and me to get my boating fix in. Plus, foliage should be around peak and the temperature still mild.
Anyone have any thoughts or advice?

Wow, looks interesting. I don't think it's unusual for an official website not to have any reviews, but a quick search on Youtube yields quite a few. I searched in Japanese - here's one example of a pretty comprehensive, 40-minute video:

A cruise to the seaside inn Guntû🚢A comprehensive report on the ship, rooms, and meals

Thanks - that was a little hard to watch but makes the boat and cruise look great.

Did you watch using the auto translate? Was it understandable?

Incidentally, have prices gone up a lot since the video (I believe it's from 2020).

Yes, auto translate (I know 20 words of Japanese). That's why it was hard to watch, but I was able to understand him. Like everything, prices have gone up. The trip we are going to sign up for is 1,800,000 Yen for 2 people, 3 nights, 4 days all inclusive including alcohol. Not sure how that compares to private tours, but given the crew to guest ratio and the cost of operating and maintaining the boat, I doubt they are getting rich.

Prices have gone up in Yen, but if you're paying in dollars it's a lot more palatable. $2000 per person per night isn't cheap, but like you said, the cost is high. Hope you have a great cruise and look forward to hearing about the experience.