Name: Kappa no Yado Ryokan Sanjiro
Address: 3 Motomachi, Toggata Onsen, Zao, Zao, Zao, 989-0913, Japan
Rating: 8

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Hairdryer

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Bathtub

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Bathrobe

Slippers

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Rooms

Wheelchair Accessible

Accessibility

Safe-deposit box

Luggage storage

Telephone

Services and amenities

Restaurant

Vending machine

Meals

Free Wi-Fi

Internet access

Internet

Karaoke

Recreation

Free parking

Parking

Fax and copy machine

Meeting and presentation facilities

Business

Doctor

Massage

Sauna

First Aid Kit

Beauty and wellness

Pets Not Allowed

Pets

Temperature control for staff

Personal protection equipment for staff

Extra decontamination measures

Temperature control for guests

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Contactless check-in and/or check-out

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Sendai Airport

Junmachi Airport

Kappa no Yado Ryokan Sanjiro

I would not stay again at Ryokan Sanjiro. I booked because it had positive reviews on other sites, but now I see those were mostly from day-trippers visiting the public onsen or the restaurant. Next time I visit Zao, I'll choose a hotel that prioritizes cleanliness. The price was $200 AUD per person per night, and I would never stay there again at that price. I might consider staying at Sanjiro again if it was $50 AUD per person per night.

Would not stay again

We stayed here for 1 night during Golden Week in Japan (this year a 2 week long run of public holidays in May joined together, is what I understand). Due to this, we had limited hotel/ryokan choices when we were planning our trip in February 2019. Ryokan Sanjiro was one that had availability for this period. And given the last English review was from 2017, we didn’t quite know what to expect. 

We were pleasantly surprised though. This is a smallish onsen hotel. It felt cozy, we recognised staff and they recognised us. We were greeted by a staff member who spoke some English and tried very hard at it. She welcomed us with a personalised map of the ryokan with our room, onsen locations and meal area highlighted and written in English. With this it felt like we had personalised service. 

The room was lovely, we could see the Zao mountain from our room. 

Meals were served in a private dining room. There was a personalised welcome note. The room meant we could enjoy dinner privately. The food was great quality! We thoroughly enjoyed it. The ingredients were fresh and dishes intricately prepared. Same goes for breakfast. No coffee provided with breakfast, but we received a voucher for coffee at the lobby. It was special, with a coffee foam on top. I like a good coffee and enjoyed this one.

There were a few private baths you could rent for 50 minutes. Prices ranged from high 1000 yen to low 2000 yen. I thought this was reasonable as the room rate was cheaper than most other onsen hotels. 

On check out again we had lovely service. 

I prefer smaller ryokans with personable service and good food, and ideally private onsen available for use - this place ticks all those boxes and has made it memorable for us. 

Exceeded expectations. Lovely onsen ryokan with close proximity to Mt Zao

Great if you like a traditional Japanese inn but for a western traveller, not very practical in many respects. Helpful, friendly staff. Inns like these have quite inadequate room bathrooms because most of their cliental use the main bath house. The lack of a bed or bedside table at 1st room entry to place travel items on, becomes a pain after too many nights on a tour staying at these type of lodges. Interesting the 1st time but best avoided unless you really like sleeping on the floor and having suitcases on the floor. Inhouse evening dining was very good with tasty traditional food. Japanese style breakfast was less enjoyable -ohh for just fresh juice, fruit and toast.

A traditional Japanese Ryokan

This Ryoken is aimed at the leisure market, but I was there on business (attending a conference in Sendai), so I didn’t manage to explore all the facilities to their full potential. 

The hand painted sign on the hotel door, welcoming me by name, was a reassuring sight after the long and slightly fraught drive from Tokyo. After removing our shoes and putting on the slippers provided, we were welcomed with green tea before being shown our room. 

If you don’t speak Japanese, be prepared for a lot of theatrical comedy miming to communicate – the staff are nice, but language is a barrier; one receptionist speaks a little English. Just go with the flow – your stay will be stage managed, but in the Ryoken way; there’s not much room for deviation (don’t mess with the system!)

The room was large, with a separate toilet and bathroom. Futons are unrolled for sleeping at night. The lady who showed us to the room explained, through the subtle art of interpretive dance, how to wear our kimonos. It was certainly an interesting sight to see Mr Blue Lamb senior surreptitiously adjusting his sash in the corridor to avoid flashing other guests… 

Little origami swans, cranes and other items are placed around the room; these are carefully folded by one of the hotel’s staff. 

The first night of sleeping on a futon with a rice husk pillow, took some getting used to. My insomnia was aggravated by the people in the room next door toasting each other loudly until about 04:00 in the morning – not brilliant as I had to get up to work the next morning, but it was a Friday night, so I don’t feel it is fair to complain. Much.

Breakfast and meals are served in your own private dining room, with hand-painted notes and menus, elaborately carved vegetables, skewered meats and fish and a host of unidentifiable accoutrements. A waiter came in and explained in Japanese about which vegetables and meats to put in the bubbling cauldron on the table. We didn’t understand, so he explained again – still in Japanese, but more loudly. I’ve often seen bemused tourists in England being treated exactly the same way. Lashings of Sake helped wash the food down, even if we had no idea what we were eating.

I overslept the first morning so missed breakfast. An elaborate spread had been set out in our named dining room that morning. I suspect missing this was a mortal insult to the staff. I hope my extravagant and humble mime of apology conveyed my deep sorrow at having missed the meal, but I suspect it didn’t go far enough. 

Book the private bath, it’s amazing. You wash yourself thoroughly first in the bathroom, then hop into the bubbling hot volcanic-spring fed bath that faces out onto a snowy slope. This spa is addictive and became a nightly habit. 

The second night of sleeping on a futon with a rice husk pillow took some more getting used to. So did the third night. I don't think I would ever have got used to it.

In summary, the staff are friendly, the place is clean and comfortable, and I regret that my work schedule meant I wasn’t able to take advantage of the facilities in the way they were meant to be enjoyed. 

Halfway through our five-hour drive back to Tokyo the hotel rang us to let us know that Mr Blue Lamb Sr had left his passport in the safe. After a hair raising and expletive ridden drive back to Zao, the empathetic mirroring dance mime that the receptionist and I performed together as she handed the document back to me will stay with me forever. 

Neither of us spoke a word of each other’s language, but we both managed to agree that husbands can be complete idiots.

An interesting experience, great baths

We were a group of 5 women and stayed in 2 Japanese style bedrooms with bathroom en suite. We stayed for 2 nights and were very happy with Ryokan Sanjiro. This is a very nice hotel. The settings inside the hotel told us that the owner / management put a lot of thoughts into it. The lobby and the Japanese style dinning area were nicely decorated in traditional Japanese furniture and decorative items. The rooms were very clean and spacious. We had 4 meals (2 breakfasts and 2 dinners) there and everyone of them were well presented and delicious!  The onsen room, although a little small, was efficient and clean. We really enjoyed having our onsen bath twice a day! Loved it. 

What impressed us most was a female staff named 'Saimi Numabe' who tried her best to communicate with us in English. She really did take good care of us. She was prompt on making reservations on the tour we wanted to join and would do her homework over the night and wrote down all the information we needed to know and would explain it to us in the morning. She even walked from the hotel in the middle of the rain to the tourist information center where we were waiting for the pick up to go on the tour to make sure that we were at the right pick up spot. On the day we departed Saimi Numabe were waiting for us at the door and presented each of us a very nice package of Japanese sweet. As we were packing the car she and a few other hotel staffs came out to see us off. As we waved goodbye Saimi Numabe told us that she would never forget us. What a sweet person she is! If I were her boss I would have given her the title of 'the best staff of the month' for the whole year!

If you are a skier it would take you about 20 minute drive up the mountain to the nearest ski resort. And if you're interested in seeing the 'snow monsters' on Mt. Zao there is a tour that you can join but make sure that you make a reservation in advance since it gets full up pretty quickly. Sadly, we didn't make it as the tour was already full when we arrived. We went on the 'snow houses' tour in the evening instead and it wasn't worth it. 

In all, I highly recommend 'Ryokan Sanjiro' if you're heading to Mt. Zao (Miyagi prefecture).

Great Service

I must mention that we were accompanied by my Japanese friend, and this aided greatly in our overall enjoyment... in fact, we were told by the masseur (who came to our room by request) that he only sees maybe one or two foreigners a year!
It's a shame I never discovered how much (or how little) English was actually spoken because I can highly recommend the place, the room, the meals and the experience as very agreeable!

Kappa no Yado Ryokan Sanjiro

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