Agano, Niigata (新潟県阿賀野市) – Kansuiro (環翠楼) ryokan Rinsenkaku (臨泉閣) Villa tour 2025 Sep. 12
Okay, so let’s take a look at our room, Dinen Kaku, which is the uh top category room here at Kuo. It’s a uh standing villa, a registered tangible cultural property. As I said earlier in the uh intro video, this uh Donan was uh founded in 1614 but was built in 1919 to the current specifications and uh so this is you can see that it is registered as a tangible cultural building. So this room has 110 square meters It’s a It’s a private villa. Has the good design award. Um before we So, it’s two stories, two floors. Let’s walk around the perimeter first. You can see that there’s a there’s a hallway, outer hallway. You can see the uh the main building and then this is the other registered tangible cultural building that has the restaurant as well as the uh the bath onsen bath. So we’ll walk around the perimeter surrounded by impressive nature. So the uh again uh 11 rooms here and it’s known for its hot springs. It’s about half hour from Nigata airport. I don’t know about Nigata station, but I I can’t imagine Nigata being a very sprawling um Megopouloolis by any stretch. So anyways, this is where we came from. You can see that there’s a little counter and uh you have a little kitchenet. Um you have the uh this is where you take your shoes off. And so we’ll uh walk into the first room here or the first two rooms. This is the dining room with a TV. Again, this uh the design, Japanese design aesthetic hearkens back to the Taiisho era, which is um between Maji uh era and the period and World War One. So, it’s kind of a weird I guess weird is not the word, but it’s a mixture of kind of Japanese traditional look, but with western some decor and furnishings. So, this is uh this is where people will hang out as they stay here. And then coming around back to the hallway. It has two bathrooms, I think. Uh oh, we’re going to bypass that for a second. Oh, this is the outer hallway. There’s a mini bar. Yep. Free beer, soda, cider, juice, tea, and then all right, we’ll get straight to it. So this is the main wash basin. Yep. Look at that. So it is 100% straight from the source on sand hot springs. Oh, let me turn on the lights here. All right. Can you close the door behind me so the bugs don’t get in? But yeah, so this is it. Don’t you like the uh the foliage reflecting off the uh onsen? So you can This is a sliding glass door. I have it open right now. And uh let me carefully walk across. So this is the view in front of the room. It should be stunning in the fall as the uh foliage turns colors. See complete privacy all around. So this is what we have to deal with. So uh each room does have an onsand although um again this is half open air I guess it’s not completely uh out in the open but with this you could uh oh here you can you can pull it closed like that to keep the bugs away. And that’s what I’m going to do now before the MS complains about insects flying around while we’re bathing. All right. So, let me walk back. Okay. Zoom out just a little bit. Okay. And then uh let me see here. I turn off the lights. So, one thing that’s nice about this place is that they do have Oh, not here. They do have two uh toilets. Uh this is the first one over here. Right there. And then there’s another toilet in the second floor. So, we’re going to go upstairs now. It has a fresh cedar smell, so they do keep it uh up to date uh or at least re reasonably fresh even though it’s a historic uh building. Little sitting area here. You can see there’s a mish mash of uh kind of different aesthetics. So, let’s do another um walk around the perimeter. Okay. So you can see that the shoi um sliding doors are now completely solidly blocking out the view from both the inside and outside. That’s for privacy sake because this is the uh where the bedroom’s going to be. So this is uh I think this is storage for the um extra futons if you have a large group of people, pillows, things like that. Closes right. This is an half closet. You have uh extra towels, the baskets to put um bring things as you go into the um the uh the communal bath. I don’t know what that leads to. So upstairs wash basin. And so this is the bedroom. has a really fresh uh tatami which is made from straw. It’s straw mat floors. And this is the western style sitting area. So you can see there there there’s a lot of space to spread out. I’m sure if there’s uh other groups of people, they would uh shove the coffee table aside and um uh roll out the futons. So if if your family or multiple groups of friends, you can do that. And so yeah, so in the first floor you have the western style living room. Um and then you have with sofas and then you have the dining table. And then here you have the bedroom and the Japanese room. And then I think the final thing here is the Uhhuh. So here’s the upstairs bathroom. Yeah. One of the uh inconveniences of mezanet or um duplex two two multiplestory buildings is when they only have a bathroom in one of the floors, but uh that’s not the case here. So anyways, this is the Din Senkaku villa at Kuido Kuo Yokan in um in Nigata and uh it’s very traditionally Japanese and historic at the same time legitimately. Um if if you’re into that type of thing, then you know this is the place for you. Um it’s not we wouldn’t live in a place like this, but if it’s just for like a night or two, why not, right? something different, something uh Japanese that you can experience. And uh supposedly the the food and everything is very very nice. So uh we’ll we’ll find out whether our stay is going to be as exemplary as many of the reviews online, especially in Japanese sites um seem to suggest. Okay, Dinaku at Kuido Kuo Dan and Nigata. Hope you enjoyed.
A walkthrough of Rinsenkaku (臨泉閣), a 110m² two-storey villa at Kansuiro (環翠楼), a 9-room luxury ryokan (Japanese Inn) located in Agano, Niigata Prefecture.
Rinsenkaku is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property (Building) built during the late Meiji era (late 19th Century.) It is the top accommodation at Kansuiro and features two bathrooms and an onsen (hot springs) bath.
AloJapan.com