A big traditional Japanese hotel, where mostly Japanese families, elderly and young people enjoy the food and visit the onsen. We felt very welcome and the staff was most helpful. The dinner and breakfast was buffet style and there was an amazing choice of food. Like in so many of these hotels, the interior and furnishings are a little dated. But this did not spoil our stay. Another great experience in Japan.

- The staff are very kind and accommodating - The accommodation picked us and even arranged a drop off car, after checking out, to our intended location - My partner had a stomachache and the staff even provided some medicine, free of charge - If you're coming for stargazing (Heavens Sonohara), they have a paid pickup and drop off bus ( 1000 yen per person ) and the accommodation can arrange tickets for you as well [ Though buying online directly from the stargazing website is slightly cheaper ] - The room was spacious - The outdoor bath was decent, nothing special

- There were few stink bugs (very common for accomodations in the countryside ) - The foot baths were very lukewarm - No night light in the room so have to use the torch provided

A very lovely traditional ryokan with very warm and helpful staff. Inaka predominately caters to Japanese tourist so while there are a few english signs and pamphlets around, other than very simple English words one may struggle to communicate with staff in detail. Breakfast is buffet style and dinner is prepared as a kiseki, both require prebooking. As it was off-season (plus post pandemic) during my visit a lot of local eateries around were also closed. Luckily there is a Family mart about a 10minute walk away in this small town where one can get some food and snacks to eat. The onsen was lovely and included both indoor and outdoor. One can also make bookings for a star gazing tour which is a feature of Achi which boasts spectacular night views given its location away from light pollution. There is also a small morning market selling food and other trinkets, best arrive early before 7:30am as things do sell out quick, especially the yummu locally made food.

It is indeed one of the Onsen Ryokan areas that is a little more out of the way to get to. There is, however, a limited direct bus providing decent views towards the end of the journey taking about two hours from Nagano Bus Center. If one wants to explore the Achi region then its a nice stay, otherwise the experience was not neccessarily worth going out of the way for.

Room was spacious. I loved the onsen as they had different baths for you to try such as the deeper pool so you can stand (120cm), the cypress wood tub or the outside pool open to the sky. There is also a foot bath with multiple pools. If stars are what you came for and do not wish to go on the star night tour, there is an observatory on site, although I don’t know if it’s open for a few. The breakfast buffet was an excellent spread of western and Japanese dishes.

The walls or floor seem a little thin as I could hear footsteps going across the ceiling!

There was a widespread of breakfast and dinner choices, including local cuisines.

The crab legs provided during dinner were very salty. Could have cook them better.

The room is clean, spacious and comfortable. The hot bath area is large and the buffet meals are very delicious with a great variety.

shuttle service to and from train station Lida There was a great selection of food staff Nishinko Mahashita was very helpful and spoke English reasonably well (not sure of spelling his name )

The location and the buffet dinner & breakfast were quite a good spread.

Time for the interior to get an update / modernisation.

Large room, free onsen and breakfast

Good buffet dinner

A bit old