illico

Looking for a luxury ryokan (w/ onsen) short stay for a trip with my partner and her parents next fall. I was looking into the Hakone area but while surfing on the Luxury Ryokan Collection website for other regions, I came across Atami Kaihourou (https://www.atamikaihourou.jp/en/) in Shizuoka. Yes it is modern, but it looks pretty impressive. I was wondering if anyone who has ever had the opportunity to stay here could comment.

Smiley90

I can't speak for that one, but you might get more luck by updating/perusing this thread:

Hakone Luxury Ryokans

We ended up staying at Yama No Chaya, though Hakone Ginyu was a difficult second place to turn down.

illico

Thanks Smiley90. Indeed I have gone through that thread a few times now!

schriste

Agree, the effect of different lighting throughout the day was amazing.

Great view (museum hotel room):


Floor plan museum rooms:


Museum room


Oval room:





Monorail to Oval

Oval



My wife and I had a great time on Naoshima island.

Disclaimer: These photos are from 2011

KI-NRT

Don't go to Atami. It's a seaside city with numerous high rises, many of which are quite worn down. It's very accessible from Tokyo so tons of families make their way there to enjoy the ocean. There's not much to see and do in the area.

Stick with Hakone. Or, just as nice (in a different way) is the Shuzenji area of Izu, home to the incomparable Asaba Ryokan.

kiokujai

Stayed at Hakone Ginyu and cannot recommend it enough. Absolutely magical experience.

KI-NRT

Since it hasn't been mentioned here, Fufu Kyoto opened last April to rave reviews.

If Fufu's other properties are any indication, Fufu Kyoto is instantly a contender alongside Aman, Park Hyatt, RC and FS (and Tawaraya and Hiiragiya, among others, on the ryokan end of things.) We've stayed at Fufu's Nikko and Kawaguchiko properties, and both of them were wonderful. Nikko was absolutely phenomenal, and is now easily the top option in the area.

It manages to fuze ryokan and luxury boutique hotel sensibilities with a modern twist. It offers the intimacy of a ryokan but with the familiar (to foreigners) comfort and amenities of an actual hotel. Fufu also offers plans that don't include any meals, which is nice when you consider that Kyoto has an abundance of awesome restaurants that people should definitely try.

One huge benefit of Fufu Nikko is the fact that every single one of its 40 rooms has a real, free-flowing Onsen (natural hot springs) bath! Sure, Hoshinoya Kyoto has an Onsen, but only in their communal baths (and not in the rooms themselves.)

We're booked at Sowaka next month, but will look to try out Fufu for a (near-) future visit to Kyoto.

jbb

Atami Luxury Options

We stayed at the Hiramatsu Atami, a hotel that's part of a four-property luxury boutique hotel group called Hiramatsu Hotels. This was a few years back pre-covid, but I recall the full-board price was around $1000/night and included a fine dining french meal for dinner and a lovely sea-view room with private onsen bath. Service was top-notch and it essentially felt like ryokan service (we were escorted to/from our rooms for dinner, only 12 or so rooms) but with modern hotel amenities and French cuisine.

We also stayed at the Atami Sekaie in the same town. We were in one of their top penthouse suites which was lovely, also included a private terrace onsen bath and included a superlative meal at their amazing teppanyaki restaurant.

Nagasaki Joe

The onsen you mention here is not far from an onsen that I stayed at in Atami back in the early 1980s, but I've also stayed in Atami in more recent years. While I generally agree with KI-NRT about Atami being full of high rises today, not to mention the ugly concrete waterfront onsen that bus in loads of tourists, there are many attractive onsen doting the hills of Atami that are surrounded by greenery with beautiful ocean views. Once you arrive in Atami by train, you'll catch a taxi that will take you to your onsen ryokan (so you won't see much of the less attractive parts). Once there, you'll be isolated in your own oasis and have little to no contact with the city and any unpleasant views, unless you choose to sightsee the city (which might not be in close walking distance from your ryokan anyway) extensively outside of your ryokan. But in Japan, the normal routine is to just hunker down and enjoy where you are for the short 1-2 nights that most people stay. Sure, there are more attractive onsen towns in Japan but given that you'll likely be staying put where you are, I wouldn't write Atami off. Or rather, I wouldn't avoid staying at a really nice onsen ryokan just because it's in Atami.

Pickles

I've stayed in that very same room (and others in the oval) a number of times. I love that building and the rooms in there. The Keith Haring prints have been removed, probably got too valuable to be hanging just like that...

Pickles

Fufu was developed by Hulic Real Estate, who also owns the Atami Kaihorou mentioned above. The Kaihorou was built in 1995 and designed by Kengo Kuma before he got religion and became a starchitect focusing on sustainability. The mid-1990s were bad years for Japanese architecture, it was at the point when the bubble had burst but the inertia and momentum of "build at all costs" meant that many projects that shouldn't have been greenlighted were already in the late planning stages, and the Japanese have never been much for understanding when a sunk cost means stop digging. Lots of white elephants were built, and looking at the pictures (especially the one of the genkan) tells me Kaihorou may be one of them. Speaking of bubble-era white elephants, I'd put the Gora Kadan in Hakone in that category. It might have been once a good idea, not so much anymore.

If you put the address for Fufu on the Google maps, it'll take you to a run-down house with a big sign that says "stop Hulic from building a hotel", in reference, of course to the Fufu. The Fufu website explicitly asks you to enter through the northern entrance by the Biwako canal on Niomon doori. The location is abutting the Hyotei and just down the street from the Murin-an, one of my favorite Japanese gardens in Kyoto, and not a stop on the usual tourist circuit, so quite a find.

Smiley90

No love for Suiran? The location alone should put it into the top3, IMHO.

KI-NRT

Suiran is decent but doesn't do it for me. The decor is cookie-cutter in my opinion, and it can't make up its mind as to whether it's an authentic Japanese-style ryokan, a Japanese hotel, or a Western-style property. The food is atrocious - ask any local that's dined there, and you'll often get the following response: "was that Washoku they served? Either way, it was inedible."

The property grounds are very nice, and the location is excellent (although subjective - I'd argue that the Park Hyatt is up there.) In the Arashiyama area, I'd put Suiran in a tie with Arashiyama Benkei (which is a real ryokan, so which one someone chooses will depend on their preferences), with the Hoshinoya a very distant third. For Kyoto overall, I'd place Suiran a half notch below the aforementioned tier-1 luxury properties.

Nagasaki Joe

So true, I think it's very confusing for its Japanese guests (it was for me as well), who probably stay once and never return. It seems to appeal mostly to a foreign clientele.
When we stayed, we got full at the champagne reception on the many small side dishes of food and had to cancel our dinner reservation, which was probably a good thing based on what you say.
That seems to be all that it really has going for it. We stayed in a standard room, which was not all that great but I hear that the suites with in-room hot spring baths are very nice.

Smiley90

All very fair points, though as a Western tourist I admittedly liked the sort of "fusion"-style it had going. And we only ate on-site for breakfast (&snacks/desserts during the Sake happy hour!). Why eat at Suiran when you have so many fantastic spots in Arashiyama within walking distance! I still miss Boruta... We split our stay in Kyoto between "downtown" and Arashiyama and would probably do so again if/when we revisit Kyoto.