Uoiwa Ryokan

We( I, husband and two kids) spent one night to experience Kyoto style stay. The dinner was so good that we could enjoy Yuba coure in a room by ourselves. Special menu for my son( 10 years old ) was also prenty and good. The location is OK. We could enjoy the view of Nishi Honganji Temple. There was a bath room unerground. That made us relaxed. The one bad thing was they didn't allow me to use credit card. I had to go to Roson convinience store which locates 10 min walk and get cash....

We spent the last night of our 10 day holiday at this ryokan as a treat. Having stayed in other ryokans, I must say that this is not a traditional ryokan. Firstly the hotel is not housed in an old machiya building, in fact it is probably purpose-built. The reception and public area are more like a traditional Japanese hotel. The quad room we had was huge - 16 tatami mats. More than enough space for 4 futons and the table with legless chairs. We had chosen half board and had specially requested for beef shabu shabu dinner instead of the traditional kaiseki dinner as we were not sure our tween girls would appreciate the more exotic food in kaiseki dinners. We were served dinner in a separate tatami room. My, the sumptuous spread of fresh thinly sliced beef, mushrooms, vegetables plus mini kaiseki was mouthwatering. The generous spread proved too much even for four ravenous travellers. We retired to our room only to realise that we had missed out on dessert so the delicious melons were served in our room. Breakfast was delicious traditional Japanese fish, rice and soup served with pickles and egg. This was a fabulous end to our 10 day sojourn in the land of the rising sun.

After an overnight flight, we reached the ryokan around 1pm. The staff offered us to check in to our room immediately knowing that we both feeling tired after all the traveling. Initially we thought we need to wait till 4pm for the check in so the offer was really appreciated. When we reach our room, there's only table and chairs and there's no staff available to prepare the futons for us to take a nap so we decided to go out for lunch instead. Room is clean and big. The ryokan is at a quiet district. It's a requirement to leave the key whenever we are out and the curfew is before 12am. Futons will always be ready when we came back at night. We did not try the public bath. The room bath tub is good enough for us. Wifi only available at the lobby and it has connection problem all the time. Kyoto station is 2 bus stops away and it is 10 minutes by walking. So whenever we need to go to any attractions, we need to go to kyoto station to transfer a bus. K-mart is just opposite the road so it is easy to get the daily necessity and small bites. There is not much restaurant nearby so we normally go to kyoto station for more food options. There are a few staff take turn manning the reception and only 1 female staff is able to converse in English but they will try their best to help you. Good ryokan experience but I will not do it again. Still prefer a proper bed and good in room wifi so that it is easier for me to do research on how to travel around without the hassle of asking the staff.