Maruhachi Ryokan

Hi all,

My husband and I are heading to Japan for the first time in October (yay). We're thinking of taking a trip to Maze for a night at Maruhachi Ryokan.

Have any of you heard anything about Maruhachi or stayed there?

They don't have a website. We made our decision to go on slightly scanty information - a few articles but mostly this one: http://www.sharing-plates.com/2013/12/one-night-in-a-mountain-ryokan-i... by Rebecca Milner who also writes for Lonely Planet & seems to have good ideas, and a (very) few mentions we'd found online.

Something about it is just really appealing to us, but our trip isn't that long & I'd like to be sure we're not planning around bad information. Going on a feeling and a nice article could be fine, but if anyone has been there or has insight we'd love to hear it!

Thanks!

Lonely planet or not... Sorry, I have something against the LP Beijing.
It looks like a nice place, but this is Japan. There are nice places nearly everywhere. There are also a couple of great places, can't tell whether this is one of them from just pictures and one person's opinion.
My feel is that since your time is limited, might as well go for one that isn't too far off from a shinkansen line and does not take too long to get to.
There a couple of nice hot spring towns littered around Japan. A great number of those are in the mountains (for obvious reasons- Volcanic activity)
Why not go to Kusatsu or Karuizawa or Nagano?
If in the Kansai region, there are a number of other places too.

The stay and dinner we had here a few years ago was one of the best meals of my life. The owner and her family were so very kind and the experience, her food and presentation was unbelievable. If I could go back to Japan for only one place it would be here.