Senami Grand Hotel Haginoya

Great food, great drinks, great Onsen, great Room—everything was wonderful. The only regret was that there were no newspapers in the lobby.We stayed locally for two nights on our Niigata trip. On the first night we stayed at Sakihana Onsen, but the service, meals, and front desk response were the worst—only the price was high. We talked during the day with my wife that if this Hotel on the second night was also terrible, our Niigata trip would become a dark memory. While strolling around Murakami City during the day, we also bought Yoshikawa salmon as a souvenir—2,000 yen per slice. It was surprisingly expensive, but we thought it must be delicious and bought it (we still hadn’t tried it at that point). In the evening we arrived at Ginoya and were shown to our Room—it was just as lovely as described. After putting down our luggage, we went to the lounge on the first floor.There was an all-you-can-drink Yasuda yogurt service; since it was hot, I had two glasses.Then it was time for a bath: I went to the large public bath on the 8th floor, and my wife went to the scenic hinoki bath on the 7th floor—both were excellent.And then came dinner—the moment we’d been waiting for. We headed to dinner saying how tough it would be if it were disappointing like last night’s meal. We were shown to a private room; seeing all of the dishes laid out on the table instantly raised our expectations. Drinks were all-you-can-drink during dinner as well; wine was even served by bottle, and they told us that if we couldn’t finish it, we could take it back to our Room. We were thrilled. I’ll upload photos of what we ate.We returned to our Room pleasantly tipsy—good night.Morning came—breakfast time. When we walked into the venue and lined up, there sat generous portions of salmon roe and tuna right in front of us. Pouring them over Koshihikari rice made a seafood bowl! There were also shumai dumplings and curry available too—but nothing could compete with that seafood bowl.This Hotel is excellent—we’ll definitely return again next year.

The guest room was spacious, the food was delicious, and the bath was excellent. However, I have two personal suggestions for improvement. First, I stayed for two nights, and on the second night the “sanitized” cups had a very strong damp-cloth smell. I won’t speculate on the cause here, but I think this should be addressed as soon as possible. Second is the grilled abalone. It was a DIY style, but I think it would be even better with a lid so it cooks evenly throughout—more like steaming—making it tastier. With only heat from below over a small flame as it is now, there ends up being quite an unevenness between the top and bottom of the abalone meat. That said, it was still definitely delicious. There were a couple of points I hope will be improved, but overall the service was great and it was a good Accommodation!