รีวิวและความประทับใจจากผู้เข้าพักที่ NIPPONIA Sasayama Castle Town Hotel

Staying in a Traditional Historic Building

I love visiting Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings. I hope these historic streetscapes will remain beautifully preserved for future generations. At the same time, as someone who lives in a regional city, I fully understand that there are limits to what local governments can do—even with great effort—when it comes to population decline and vacant-house issues. In that context, I strongly support and have high expectations for NIPPONIA’s concept of renovating traditional buildings and offering travelers an experience of “staying as if you live there.” In Tamba-Sasayama, you operate multiple lodging buildings, and I was deeply impressed by how clearly this contributes to the town’s vitality. That said, here is my own contradiction. Even though I cherish traditional architecture and live outside a major city myself, when it comes to staying overnight I still end up prioritizing comfort. The building was carefully renovated, but voices from the neighboring room were noticeable, and on the first night I couldn’t sleep because the talking continued until around 2:00 a.m. To be fair, the following night was much quieter, and I was able to rest well. What this experience made me realize is that guests are also expected to have an awareness that they are becoming “residents” of the town during their stay. Precisely because staying in a traditional building is such a special experience, there are manners that should be observed. I felt these points could be communicated a bit more carefully by the operator. Tamba-Sasayama was truly a wonderful town. We were given a ride to the breakfast venue, but walking back while enjoying a morning stroll was also something special. I sincerely hope that NIPPONIA’s philosophy will be understood more widely, allowing both the preservation of traditional buildings and local revitalization to thrive together.