Hotels near Toge no Koen, Shibukawa

With its location along the famous stone stairs and its access to abundant ”golden hot spring water”, one can easily tell this is a long-established hotel in Ikaho. And this is the reason for my choosing to stay here since it is not easy to find onsen hotels that offer ”natural flowing water” nowadays (onsen water will be ”recycled” in many hotels). If one's purpose for coming to Ikaho is for their good water, Kishigo will be a good choice because they have three hot spring baths, and I particularly like the one detached from the main building, i.e. Open-Air Bath Gonzaemon no Yu. I got a Western style room with view of the stone stairs, nothing fancy, but I do not mind. As a solo traveller, I was not given the choice of dining at the hotel when making the booking. It worried me a bit at first since I always enjoy having traditional Japanese dinner in onsen hotels; and with this being my first visit to Ikaho, I did not even know if there is any restaurant in the area (shops in most onsen towns close at 5pm or earlier). It worked out all right in the end for there are restaurants, and I went to one that is just a minute's walk from the hotel. Dining out also meant I had more flexibility in spending time on a stroll around the area and relaxing in the hot springs.

While visiting Ikaho in 2019, I saw 福一 while walking the stone steps. The unmaintained, unkempt external of the building and the bags of trash littered around the building were enough to make my visceral reaction be one of… I’m glad I’m not staying there. Unfortunately, while visiting more recently, the ryokan I’d stayed at previously was fully booked. I happened upon 福一’s website and didn’t realize that it was the same ryokan that had made me internally shudder. The website makes you believe this ryokan will be updated and beautiful. Don’t be fooled like me. The ryokan was old and dirty inside. I’ve stayed at many ryokans and I don’t mind old buildings and fixtures, furniture, etc. Old can be beautifully-maintained and clean. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case here. Carpets in common areas were horribly stained. Parts of wooden fixtures were peeling off. There was mold in the sink in our bathroom. The bathroom trash can was literally a yellow bucket that has not been cleaned of stains in quite a while. There was mold covering the soap dispenser in our room. The room I booked was called the “Modern Japanese room”. Superficial things in the room had been updated (like the wallpaper) but the sink, shower, bathtub, etc were obviously from when the ryokan opened. The food was disappointing as well. It’d obviously been cooked in huge batches beforehand and was just sitting around for awhile prior to being served. The rice in the 炊き込みご飯 at the end of the meal was cold and hard. Anyone who is familiar with rice would know it’d obviously been cooked well before and had been left out for awhile. The breakfast buffet had plenty of variety but the quality of the food was poor. All in all, quite bad cost performance. While this ryokan charges the same price as other ryokans in the area, the quality of the room and the facilities and the quality of the food really don’t live up to the price point. I couldn’t wait to leave 福一.

I stayed one night with my wife and three children. Both breakfast and dinner are delivered to the room, and although it was written that the dinner was ”less”, my husband was full! The children's rice was also arranged like a children's lunch, and my son was very satisfied, saying, ”The fried chicken is very delicious!” The side dishes are of course delicious, but the rice was so delicious that I ended up getting a second serving (laughs). , Above all, everyone was smiling and friendly, but they kept an appropriate distance, so I was able to spend a comfortable time during my stay. It's undeniable that the building is dilapidated, but the scenery from the window is wonderful from every room, the hot spring water is smooth and comfortable, you can choose from various types of shampoo, soap for babies, crib, diaper disposal. I felt that they were thinking about their customers, such as the trash cans being provided. I think it's still a tough situation due to the corona wreck, but I'll do my best to overcome it, and I'd like to stay again next time I come to Ikaho.

The self lounge at the corner of the lobby is good. Since it is a free drink except for night ～ early morning, I am glad to use it before and after check-in out, of course, after the morning bath. You can relax while watching the garden. Because it is winter, I didn't go out, but I saw foot bath? I want to go out next time because I saw something like it. The room is clean. It is especially convenient that there was a bath towel size pole in the bathroom. The side of the washbasin is also a paper towel and ⚪ as a corona countermeasure, but it is regrettable that the toilet was an ordinary towel. I am excited to pass through the tatami corridor to the hot spring. There is also a rest corner at the entrance of the tatami corridor and on the way, and it is safe to climb. There were several baths, and I liked to enter the steam negative ion state on the back side of the waterfall. I had a Viking in the morning and evening. There is no big feature, and there is no super delicious as it jumps up if there is no unpleasant thing, and there is a corner that can be made in the live kitchen even in ＝, and tension rises. If the favorite thing is just at the time of the cut ｢ no ... ｣, the staff who was next to you is ｢ sorry, I will prepare it immediately ｣. When I returned to the Viking refill again a few minutes later, I saw me and waited ｢. Please eat a lot ｣. I thought this response was a meteorite. The cake is exactly the same as the restaurant in the shopping mall, but I enjoyed it comfortably as a whole. There are not many parking lots, and if you are full, you will move to another place. The parking lot on the premises is narrow, so be careful of large cars.

A very local hotel popular among the local business travellers. I was there to explore Gunma mountains and this is one of the best western style hotel I can find that is close to train station. I do have to say the hotel is very old but everything still good for me. The single room is small but it has everything I need. Their 8 floor dining area for breakfast was so awesome as you have a wide view of the town and mountains around it. Breakfast is acceptable and I don’t have any complaints about it. What I like a lot is that they also provide free curry rice every weekdays excerpt weekend and public holiday. Although the curry rice is very simple without any meat, but it was so comforting to eat it. There’s also an onsen that you can use it, and a common room with comics, massage chairs and old school computer to use.

It was here that I suddenly needed to stay in this area for consecutive holidays, and it was vacant. I could only book a smoking room for one of the two nights, but the smell of the room was quite strong for non-smokers. It may be that only heavy smokers usually stay. If you do not smoke, it is safer to exclude smoking rooms from consideration. The site is along the national highway, and it takes a little over 30 minutes to get to the Tsukiyono Interchange on the lower road. Families with snowboards were also staying. Of course, there is no such thing as a drying room. There are Lawson and 7-Eleven within walking distance, so you don't have to worry about shopping. I couldn't find any kind of restaurants nearby. It seems that you can eat something simple at night at the breakfast restaurant in the hotel. The large public bath is a rather small size with four washing areas. It is not a fine public bath like the latest route inn. Free breakfast is usual route in quality. The breakfast bread and juice they use are the same ones you see anywhere in the country. There is no particular problem with the hotel's customer service. The parking lot has a lot of sections, but it felt cramped compared to the latest route-in. It is a hotel that can be used in various ways, not just for business purposes.

1. Bedroom: The room itself is decently spacious. All clean and well-maintained. 2. Bathroom: Cleanliness is top-notch. Three big bottles of bodywash liquid, shampoo and conditioner are provided 3. Wifi: Excellent 4. Location: Lawson and Maebashi station is just 5 mins walk. 5. Parking: the hotel has a limited car park space. If the carpark’s full, you will be directed to park at Aquerus building, just next to Maebashi station. You get to pay 600 ¥ per night at Aquerus. 6. Things to know: Despite the fact that it looks like a three-star basic hotel, don’t let that fool you. The hotel offered lots of freebies. You can eat a complimentary ramen from 22:00-24:00. You also can take complimentary ice creams and probiotic drinks (opened at certain time period) in front of bathing facilities. There’s an onsen facility if you want to have a nice relaxing hot bath. Don’t expect the hotel staff to speak fluent English here, though.

Hotel room: The space is good for a Japanese hotel, but the bathroom is small. Hotel facilities: But the hotel has hot springs, free self-service washing machines, and self-service dryers for ¥100 for 20 minutes. There are free ice cream bars, free soba noodles during part of the evening, and free Yakult during part of the morning. Location: It is about a 12-minute walk from JR Takasaki Station to the hotel. There are many restaurants, shopping malls, and large Japanese supermarkets nearby for shopping. If you buy a JR Tokyo wide pass, taking JR from this location to various ski resorts (such as Goetsu Yuzawa and Karuizawa) is less than half an hour's drive away, which is very convenient!

I stayed in Takasaki after a long time and chose Metropolitan Takasaki at that time. When I stayed before, I remember staying in a large room with a low accommodation fee, but this time all rooms were set to have a high accommodation fee. The atmosphere of the lobby and the room remained the same as before, but the room is a standard single room with breakfast and ¥ 12,800 is expensive. However, I felt a feeling of cleanliness, and I was able to spend a relaxing time with an air purifier.

Just opposite the Yamada Electric Appliance outside Gaoqi Station, there is a land bridge that can be crossed without crossing the road. The price of the house is also attached to breakfast. It is very recommended to take the North Lu Shinkansen, Shangyue Shinkansen, my wife line and so on to the light well, Tangze, Xinyi, Caojin and other places. Avoid expensive accommodations in resorts and don't have to pull luggage frequently to change hotels. Suitable for JR pass travelers.