Oyado Onn Nakatsugawa Review 🏨 Best Hotel for the Nakasendo Trail
Hey, it’s Maximo and welcome to Maximo’s Travels. In this video, I’ll be reviewing the Odo on Nakatagawa Hotel. We’ve come to Nakatagawa to walk on part of the Nakasendo Trail. The hotel is actually located on the trail. It’s a modern, recently built hotel that fetches extensive use of Cypress Wood. I’ll be reviewing all the hotel’s key facilities, including its onen and vending machines, its complimentary buffet breakfast, and the complimentary dashy broth that’s served nightly. I’ll be doing a room tour of the small, comfortable, but functional room that we’re in. Join me on this detailed hotel review. [Music] We’d come to Nagatagawa to primarily walk the Nakashendo Trail. We spent two nights here. We were staying at the Odo on Nakatagawa Hotel. It’s quite a recent hotel, having only opened in 2022. The hotel can best be described as a Japanese business type hotel. It’s located on the outskirts of the old part of Nikatagawa and there’s quite a few businesses and cafes around it. The hotel is well set back from the street and it does look quite new and modern. There it is. The vast majority of guests here were Japanese only a handful of Westerners staying. If you’re getting here by car, the hotel doesn’t have on-site parking, but there are a couple of parking lots within a couple hundred meters of the hotel. The hotel is located around 550 m or a 10-minute walk away from the Gutsagawa station. The path is uphill and the ground, especially the footpaths are quite uneven, so it’s pretty heavy going with suitcases in tow. We got to the hotel from Nagoya just after 200 p.m. but check-in isn’t until 400 p.m. which gave us a bit of time to wander around the old part of Nikatagawa. The old part of Nikatagawa is a delightful and historic area. It actually is on part of the Nakasendo way as is the hotel. The area around the hotel is full of old historic wooden Japanese houses. a number of streams and rivers and also a decent view of the snowcovered nearby hills. And the late check-in gave us an opportunity to explore part of the old city. All right, we’ve had a bit of a walk through the town. Quite a charming town. It’s about 10 minutes to go until we can check into our hotel. We’re just sitting outside of the hotel and it’s got very convenient the seats right at the u the front of the hotel. So, just chilling out for a few minutes and then we’ll check in and get to relax a little bit before dinner. 4:00 came and it was time to check in. The hotel was built quite recently in 2022, but in many ways it’s both modern and uses a lot of traditional materials found in old Japanese houses, including its stunning cypress wood floor. And like many traditional Japanese houses, shoes aren’t allowed anywhere in the hotel. And that’s why all these shoe lockers are present right near reception. It was slightly annoying having to take your shoes on and off every time you came in and out of the hotel. A couple of the hotel staff spoke reasonable English and we checked in with a minimum of fuss. We had booked a comfort twin room. It was reasonably small, only 18 square m or about 194 square ft. The cost for two nights was 58,600 yen, around $67 Australian or $391. As with most Japanese hotels, this one had a public bath or onsen. It was open from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and from 4:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. in the morning. I didn’t use these baths on our stay, but here’s some pictures of it taken from the internet. And the public baths or onsen do look quite inviting. The public baths were located on the mezzanine level, as were these vending machines that sold tea and coffee, water, soft drinks, and beer. If you’re enjoying this video, then hit that like button, and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel. If you want to be notified of all my future videos, hit that notify bell. If you’d like to see more videos like this one, then please consider supporting my channel by buying me a coffee. Also located on the mezzanine level was a Japanese tea station, microwave, and ice dispensing machine. That is the front reception desk and a whole lot of lockers for shoes. I never saw any cues in reception and also I don’t believe it’s open 24/7. Complimentary breakfast is served from 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. in the front dining area of the hotel. It’s a wonderful light-filled area that’s split up into many different sections with heaps of tables and chairs to accommodate all the guests. The style is minimalistic in coping with the rest of the hotel. The breakfast is a Japanese style buffet and it’s quite good. It features a bread station, a miso soup station, plus plenty of different Japanese foods, some from the local area. There are a number of gluten-free and vegetarian options to suit all different tastes, as well as allergy requirements. Fresh and appetizing salads are available. And there’s a whole different load of fish available, grilled, fried, smoked, and marinated. There’s a couple of western dishes available such as eggs and sausages, but most of the food is Japanese. Oniri are available as are different meats and curries, although curry for breakfast doesn’t sound that appealing for me. There’s also fresh fruit available and yogurt. All very good quality and quite a reasonable selection of food you can choose from. The coffee was okay. Not fantastic, not terrible, just okay. But it was available 24 hours a day from this coffee station. There was also milk, fresh juices, and brewed teas available as well. The quality and selection of drinks available was quite good. Breakfast seemed quite popular as there was always quite a crowd of people on the two occasions that we had breakfast here. Lunch and dinner aren’t offered at the hotel. However, there are plenty of cafes and restaurants around the area, including this Isizakaya, which is almost directly across the road from the hotel. It’s a great place to have a drink or dinner, although there is limited gluten-free food, but plenty of vegetarian options available for you. The hotel, however, does offer hot broth chazuki. It’s complimentary and served from 700 p.m. nightly until the rice runs out or 9:00 p.m. whichever comes first. It’s a dashy or fish flavored stock that’s served with rice and different condiments. It’s perfect for a snack, although for large eaters, this wouldn’t suffice for dinner. We were staying on the third floor of the hotel, and the corridors were both moody, dark, and quite funky. Now comes the moment you have all been waiting for. We were staying in room 328 which was a comfort twin room quite small at only 18 square meters. Right. So this is our room 328. There’s two single beds together. There’s sort of a day couch. That’s quite spacious really. Um, there isn’t much of a view outside. Not much of a view. I think it’s a post office next door. No, not much of a view outside, I’m afraid. So, this side of the bed has got light controls as well as two power points. There’s a small table. Looks like traditional Japanese garb. Couple of powerpoints there. And quite a few more there. I think this might be No, that’s not a fridge. I’m not sure that we have a fridge. Well, that’s not fridge cuz it’s not going to open. No, it’s not going to open. But that is um a small TV. It’s the air conditioner. And over here we have uh a sink. Right. So the sink is outside in the main room. Another power point there. There’s a bit of storage, hanging storage. And I found that is the very dark black fridge. And what we got under there? Team coffee making facilities, hair dryer, and safe. Quite a small safe. Everything’s quite miniature. Yeah, it’s quite small. Um, that’s our suitcases. I’m not sure where they’re going to go. Probably on that on the couch, I think, because there’s not a lot of room in here. I mean, it’s quite sort of funky, isn’t it? This is more or you’d get in your average Japanese room. Yes. We’ve been spoiled with some of ours. All right. So, there’s a hook. Uh, there’s a sliding door. Oh, for privacy. It’s a sliding door for privacy. Washing your hands. Yes. Okay. So, there’s a separate toilet, but it is connected through a doorway to the shower. The shower, it’s big enough, but um sort of the doors in an awkward position. There’s complimentary shampoo, conditioner and body soap called polar. And yeah, with the door closed, there’s um a reasonable amount of room in here. It does seem like a pre-fabricated um bathroom and toilet this, but anyway, it’s all quite functional. All quite functional. It looks comfortable. What are the beds like? Just unpacked our sake. Oh, our sake is unpacked. We’re going to get stuck into that momentarily, I think. I think so. Yes, I think we’ve deserved it. Well, we’re here for two nights. It should be uh should be pretty good. Looks to be quite a compact. I mean, it’s two beds. They’re together, but it’s actually bigger than having a king-siz bed, I think. So, yeah, I think so. Um TV’s in a strange position. We just have to lay in bed on our right side, right? Okay. Yeah. All right. Two nights here. Yep. Only thing with this room is the TV is not working at all. Don’t know why it’s not working. Our room is right behind the lifts when we we heard absolutely and utterly nothing from the lifts. Very well insulated. the room was. This was a modern, comfortable, if slightly expensive hotel to stay at considering its location and relative remoteness. It was on the expensive side. The room was small but quite functional and comfortable. The shower was good, the bed was good, the air conditioning quiet and effective. The breakfast was quite good. The only issue we had was the TV not working. I’d give this hotel a maximum rating of four out of five. Thanks so much for watching my hotel review and until next time, you take care and bye for now. [Music]
Planning to walk the historic Nakasendo Trail in Japan? The Oyado Onn Nakatsugawa Hotel is the perfect place to begin your journey. Recently built with beautiful cypress wood interiors, this hotel offers comfort and tradition in one.
In this review, I cover:
– Relaxing onsen hot spring baths
– Complimentary buffet breakfast
– Nightly dashi broth server
– Handy vending machines
– A full room tour
Two nights in a Comfort Twin Room 18 square meters 194 ft cost¥58,608 – AUD $607 USD $391 Inc Breakfast.
Parking ¥500 AUD $5 USD $3.20 per night.
The room and bed were comfortable but the breakfast was somewhat disappointing. The bar is dark and interesting to say the least.
I give this hotel a Maxio rating of 4 out of 5.
👉 Join me as I explore why Oyado Onn is one of the best places to stay in Nakatsugawa before starting your Nakasendo adventure.
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Links:
– https://www.instagram.com/visitjapanau/
– https://www.onn-nakatsugawa.com/
– https://www.instagram.com/onn_nakatsugawa/
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:57 Details & Location
03:21 Common Areas
05:52 Breakfast & Dinner Broth
08:03 Room Tour
13:30 Summary & Outro
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