Hidden Ryokan Gem in Japan π―π΅ | Sanyo-so Ryokan Full Tour & Review
If you visit Japan, you need to visit a Rioan. I love a good rian. So when I visited the Kanagawa region in Hakon, I really wanted to try a really high quality top one and I really wanted to splurge. So I decided to go to San Established in 1929. It was originally a villa made for Hisaya Iaki, the eldest son of Yatalo Iaki, who started Mitsubishi, known for their cars, aircons, and other electronic products. Although now it’s a commercialized Rioan, retains the traditional architecture design you expect from a more traditional Japanese building. In this video, we’ll go over our experience, a room tour, amenities, and what you can expect from the Rioan, and of course, my final thoughts. So, let’s start off with the initial experience. Arriving at the Rioan is an experience in itself. The buildings look gorgeous as you arrive, and you already feel like you’re being swept back into the past. The only thing to note here, it’s a bit out of the way, so there isn’t really anything that’s walking distance nearby. So, highly recommend a car or to be part of a tour group or bus. When you first enter the hall, you’re greeted by a traditional entrance. You are forced to take off your shoes, but don’t worry, they’ll give you some slippers, and you just wear those slippers throughout the entirety of the Rioan. Checking is relatively straightforward, although the staff doesn’t really have anyone that can speak proper English. So, make sure you have Google Translator, but for the most part, basic English works here. Now, before we get to the rest of Yokan, let’s hand it over to the live commentary of the room tour. Welcome to our humble mode. Let me show you a tour. All right, so this is our little room. By little I mean it’s pretty big. So we got the standard fridge here and complimentary I think it’s complimentary beer, right? Yeah. Okay. Um little I I guess just entry room of some sort. Have some extra food. Oh, it’s it’s all right. It’s a futon. I guess you could sleep here. So, we have little bathroom here. We got toilet in there and our own private onen. It is quite warm in here in the little shower. Little bath. You can see the camera’s fogging up a bit, but that’s really awesome. All right, let’s get out of here. Time to clean the lens. [Music] All right. So, for the rest of the room, we got some seats in the middle. Um, pretty sizable living room, timing mats. Is this a humidifier? I’m assuming that’s a humidifier, so we’ll pump that later. Um, an air con, a I guess some kind of praying area. I’m assuming we have a safe. So, this is one of the other rooms. Um, you can obviously lay timing mats here. Some chairs. I believe this is a some robes. So maybe for after showering. So that’s nice. Some free water if you need it. You have another bedroom. So this setup is a two normal bedroom as well as two futon beds that you can I guess put anyway really. And then a nice view outside. So over there’s the entrance. Um but yeah, what a sick room. It is massive. It is 63 square meters approximately. I they say 63 is 21 m which is huge for Japanese standards. 631 is huge. But yeah, what a cool room. Um definitely much bigger than some of the other cheaper Rioons I’ve stayed at. All right, so thanks Richard for the live commentary. So, now let’s talk about the actual amenities for this Rio cup. There’s plenty of on-site parking if you are driving. So, let’s just get that out of the way. Now, from a bathing perspective, it’s pretty straightforward. It’s split into gender based bathing, male and female. Now, with the bathing options, there is an indoor bath as well as an open air bath. Now, do check that there are different times for bathing, so just double check, but generally they open pretty late. Additionally, my favorite little thing that this yoken has is that it actually has free massage chairs. Not many yokans actually have this. So, what’s best after soaking yourself and relaxing after a while, even more relaxing time on his massage. Other amenities at this place include a pretty large garden, which probably takes around half an hour just to go around. And it is pretty cool garden to check out. And honestly, this place is just big, so you can just pretty much go around and explore. However, apart from that, there isn’t actually much to do. So, I really highly recommend renting your own car and just going outside of Rioan to do some night activities because the Riokan itself is amazing, but there’s not much to do at the Ryokan itself. Now, for dinner, you’re giving a traditional Kiaseki menu. There’s appetizers, clear soups, sliced raw fishes, some hot pot, rice, as well as some sweet or dessert at the end. It is a very, very packed menu. There’s over 20 plus dishes, so definitely savor each one. This is a very high quality meal. It tasted awesome. We’ve had a lot of kaiseki actually Japan, but we actually felt that this one was actually really good as well. And each night it is different if you are staying for a couple of days. Now, I do highly recommend just trying each dish even if it looks weird. It is a more traditional Japanese meal. So, more traditional Japanese foods as you can see in the snapshots here in the video. So, don’t expect any too modern type foods like chips and stuff. But either way, I would highly recommend putting this into your actual booking and including the Kaiser experience. So, when we booked, we paid around $1,000 between four people. I think a bit more than $1,000. So, around $250 per person, which actually is a great price for Rioan. When I rechecked this price or I guess this Rioan recently, the price was a lot higher. So, we definitely booked a lot earlier in a better time. So, definitely book ahead of time to ensure you actually lock in a good rate. My final thoughts of this Rioan is I think it’s a really cool Rioan. It is a bit more of a traditional one with less activities to do. I have a video of a more modern Rioan which I will post up which has a lot more activities you can do at the Rioan so you don’t have to you know venture out but I think it’s still a nice traditional stay especially if you can bring the family along. And I would highly recommend definitely booking this real. I give it an eight out of 10 just because, you know, two out of 10 I’m taking off just because there isn’t much to do apart from the onsent and food here. But eall pretty good to stay at if you have a car in my opinion at least.
β½ Get up to 10% off anything on Klook – Use my code: RICHARDLIUKLOOK
https://bit.ly/klookrichard
I absolutely adore ryokans that maintain a more traditional approach and architecture to the hotel. In this video, I take you on a full walkthrough of this traditional Japanese inn βfrom entrance, onsen, room and kaiseki meals.
There are awesome other things including its verry serene Japanese garden, beautiful architecture, and impeccable service, so am very excited on reviewing this ryokan.
To summarise in this video, I will review:
πΏ A look at the beautiful garden and grounds
ποΈ Full room tour (including tatami layout and private amenities)
π± Kaiseki dinner highlights
β¨οΈ Onsen facilities (indoor and outdoor baths)
π My honest thoughts on whether it’s worth the price
If you’re planning a trip to Japan and want a calm, nature-filled ryokan experience that feels a little under the radar β this might be the one.
#ryokan #JapanTravel #Sanyoso #IzuJapan #JapaneseInn #OnsenRyokan
————————–
β½ SIGN-UP TO MY FREE TRAVEL NEWSLETTER
π° https://95travel.substack.com/
β½ AMEX CARDS THAT I USE
π³ AMEX Qantas Explorer – https://bit.ly/3UXsyNz (I’ve used this for almost a decade now)
β½ OTHER LINKS TO MAXIMISE YOUR TRAVEL & SPENDING MONEY!
π² WeMoney – Get $5 when you sign up with this link – https://bit.ly/3Umb2AU
π Airalo – Get $3 USD for your next e-sim! – https://bit.ly/4duyp3M
π MooMoo – Get FREE Stocks (only for a limited time) + Earn 6.8% interest – https://bit.ly/4dqpqkh
β Wise – Get $1000 FEE FREE transfer with the best international card – https://bit.ly/4bvX6vf
π UP (Aussies only) – Grab a FREE $10 with this link – https://bit.ly/3UukUZh
π° Stake (Aussies only) – Get $10 or up to $150 and trade on ASX or Wall St – https://bit.ly/4dq88DU
Note some links are affiliate-based. Using these links doesn’t cost anything extra and you help support my content creation journey π
—————-
SUPPORT THIS CHANNEL β€οΈ
βΊhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeMV3-wvFhIvrjFZojeN0Ug?sub_confirmation=1
FOLLOW ME HERE β€οΈ
βΊ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/richardliuliu
βΊ Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/richardfliu
βΊ Newsletter: https://cornertechmarketing.substack.com/
βΊ Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@richardliuliu
AloJapan.com