Ginrinsou

Scenic Views: The hotel offers stunning views from both the rooms and public areas. Guests frequently mentioned the beautiful ocean views and the picturesque snow scenery on the way to the hotel, making it a memorable visual experience.

We booked the best room on the top floor and spent 7 nights at this high end and extremely expensive ryokan/hotel. Here are the pros and cons: PROS: The food is amazing in terms of presentation, gastronomy and service. The place is immaculately clean. The views a fantastic! We got comfortable Yukatas and overall the place has a very nice traditional vibe.  CONS: They seem to be completely inapt in hosting people who don’t speak Japanese. No one speaks English at this place. None at all! They write that we can “press 9 and call the reception”, but once you do it – you can’t have any conversation with anyone at all. Even when you get down in person to the reception, no one can really communicate with you, even with Google Translate.  They exhibit zero flexibility. The approach is – it’s our way or the highway. All is extremely polite, but no left, no right! Can we have a laundry service arranged? The answer is “no!”. Can we communicate with you via WhatsApp or email? – No! Can we come later to breakfast? No. Can we have dinner at a later time, since we can’t come earlier just this one day? No! Basically, if you want to sleep a bit later during your vacation – forget it! Either show up at 8 or 8:30 am for breakfast, or go hungry! Can we buy your Yukata? – No! Also, we were asked to indicate every day what time we intend to go out – something that adds pressure, as  on vacation one may want to improvise, rather than plan ahead their outings.  Given that this place charges exuberant prices, the lack of the most basic hospitality features (communication, laundry, customer-focused flexibility) is astounding! We now staying at another Ryokan, 90 minutes away and see that everyone can speak some English and the place is much more focused on the needs of a foreign traveler, as opposed on preserving the holy rigidity of an existent system. 

For those who travel as a family, please pay extra attention to this hotel. The hotel charged us an additional charge of 99,300 JPY (ie SGD $925) for two kids’ half board meals. In the end, we paid almost SGD $1900 for 2 adults and 2 kids for one night stay at Ginrinsou. That is ridiculous!!! Please avoid this hotel.