Shirakabe: A Traditional and Modern Fusion in a Satoyama Farmhouse

This was a truly wonderful Accommodation. Our family takes trips to Onsen Accommodations that are doable from Tokyo for one night about 2–3 times a year, usually spending around 30,000–40,000 yen per person. My wife chooses the Accommodation each time, but lately none have been memorable or particularly appealing. This time, though, we finally found an Accommodation we genuinely want to visit again. Many of the staff are from Southeast Asia; when I asked, I was told they have passed the Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1 and also undergo a one-year training period. We never once had any trouble communicating. I previously lived in Thailand for about five years for work, so I already knew people from Southeast Asia tend to be even more serious and hardworking than many Japanese—but I was still impressed by just how high the standard was here, and we were able to spend a very comfortable time. These days many staff don’t wear name tags (perhaps due to measures against customer harassment), so I don’t know her name, but thank you sincerely to the woman in charge of our Room—she was wonderful and very thoughtful. The all-staff send-off after checkout truly moved me.As for the Onsen: honestly both the water quality and bath area were fairly standard, but everything was very clean. One thing I did notice is that it’s great not having to bring towels into the bath area; however, you still need to bring things like a change of underwear or your phone. In the end we put them in a plastic supermarket bag out of necessity, but I would have liked a larger drawstring pouch (like those often provided at other Onsens) to be available in the Room. Also, my wife said she felt scared because it was dark on the way to the large bath as well as inside it. Lastly, we felt the air conditioner noise was slightly loud—just mentioning it in case.And the meals were outstanding! The balance, portion size, and taste—everything was excellent with nothing to complain about. Because I’m big-built I eat quite a lot and meals at Accommodations often aren’t enough for me; this time I shared small portions of my wife’s meal with our son as well and still felt about 90% full. While breakfast can be disappointing at many places these days, breakfast here was also solid—and it wasn’t that thin crispy dried horse mackerel you often see everywhere else either (which was nice). Above all else: the wasabi was delicious! Being able to get refills freely made it even better. In any case, we definitely want to come again—thank you very much.

We stayed in the Ema Room.The Room was spacious, and both the lounge and all areas were very clean. We were very satisfied with the attentive service throughout. The in-room free-flowing hot spring bath featured tea trees—very Shizuoka—and everything was well maintained. The shower area was fully stocked with amenities as well, making this an Accommodation with nothing to fault.At dinner, we were surprised by how sweet the fresh wasabi was.We took a stroll along the Yunomichi path, and the gently flowing clear water was truly soothing.We will definitely return.