Koshio no Akari "Ishigaki Villa"

A wonderful Accommodation I discovered in a town I’d never heard of

We stayed as a group of four: two adults, one elementary-school child, and my mother-in-law. We used this Accommodation for one night during a 12-night trip around Kyushu. ●Location To be honest, I wasn’t familiar with Ukiha City, but I happened to find it on IKYU and made a Reservation. Although this Accommodation is in Fukuoka Prefecture, it’s in a quiet mountain area close to Hita City in Oita (famous for yakisoba) and Nabegataki Falls in Kumamoto (which requires an advance Reservation to visit). It’s a private whole-house rental standing alone in a peaceful town. ●Room This is a renovated traditional Japanese house. I was slightly worried because cleanliness can vary with this type of property, but this one was excellent—very well maintained and spotless. The interior is very spacious, with a large dining table, living area, sleeping space where you lay out futons, and even a bath with a terrace. It would comfortably fit 6–7 people, so it’s great for family trips or groups. Having a washing machine inside the Room was also very convenient and really helped as an overnight stop during a longer trip. ●Dining There is no breakfast, but dinner comes with a Hakata-style mizutaki hot pot set. Ingredients and cooking equipment are provided, and you cook it yourself. Because the dining area is large, we could bring our own drinks and enjoy dinner at our own pace. Also, given the location it can be hard to plan dinner options nearby, so having an evening-meal Plan was actually the deciding factor for our Reservation. ●Service The property is basically unmanned from check-in to check-out. We could relax without worrying about Hotel staff and spend time at our own pace. ●Overall satisfaction It felt very reasonably priced. There are no shared Facility areas like you’d find at larger properties, but considering the spacious Room plus dinner included at this price point, satisfaction was very high. It seems the same operator has several other Accommodations around Ukiha as well—next time we travel around Fukuoka/Oita/Kumamoto again, we’d like to try another one too.