This was a strange place. Very nice staff and food was exceptional, but it had many drawbacks. Firstly, it was very old fashioned and dated, like stepping back in time. The place has no atmosphere, you can’t sit, eat or relax in the common areas like the 3 restaurants unless you make a pre scheduled reservation. If it’s the middle of the day, you can’t sit there, it’s closed. Yes, it’s directly on the lake, but so are many others. There is no Fuji view in the common areas, I was told this by the lady on reception today. My view from Fiji-view room was obscured by an old rusty fence. We also booked a room with “terrace” imagining sitting outside looking at Fuji, but actually there are no chairs to sit outside and it’s not pleasant to sit out there at all. They shouldn’t miss sell this by stating it has a terrace. Corridors are dark and old, sometimes scary. Like an old run down hotel that time forgot. Didn’t like it at all. We couldn’t use the onsen as it’s male/female separated and travelling with my child who is male in gender they expected us to separate. Well, I’m not going to send my child off naked to a bath with other male strangers naked on his own. But that was their expectation. So we couldn’t use that facility.
Didn’t understand why difffeent guests used different restaurants - or what the different restaurants were for. This was not explained. We pre arranged dinner and breakfast and had this in the downstairs restaurant area. The food was absolutely incredible -one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten! Do not miss having the set dinner here, cannot recommend highly enough if you like traditional Japanese food.
