Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Unzen Toyokan

Spacious room, clean bath. The food is Viking, there is a variety of good food. There are also a lot of products on sale. The ryokan is very large, so you need time to get to the restaurant or public bath. The one in the bath is not a sulfur casket type spring.

I was as little apprehensive staying here given the poor ratings, but I couldn't have been happier. Staff were friendly, and made an effort, although only 1 reception girl spoke any English. I had a Japanese style room overlooking the lake. It was massive, and very comfortable. The only issue was that the windows weren't double glazed, and it was freezing outside (-8c overnight), and the sitting area got extremely cold. I guess it doesn't normally get this cold though. The room was warm with the sliding doors closed. The onsen were perfectly acceptable. The rooftop one was great in the snow! I had half board. The food options were extensive at both breakfast and dinner. If you don't eat Japanese food the choice will be quite limited though. Good selection of free drinks, and decent selection of paid for alcoholic drinks. There's loads of common areas and places to relax. A previous commenter mentioned the long corridors, which is true, the wrong room can mean long walks to the onsen and restaurant. Overall, 5*. But remember this is a JAPANESE hotel, catering to domestic tourists, so don't expect an international style hotel!

I booked this hotel because it was stated as “new opened” on the booking site. When I arrived the hotel, I was shocked to see its outlook was really old. (I googled it in Japanese afterwards and noticed the hotel was actually opened in 1940s’ and only got some renewal after the hotel was bankrupt a few years before...) Staff was nice and we were arranged to a room with a nice view. I booked a Japanese and western room. The room is big and clean though the toilet is old and not so tidy. When I get into the room (about 5pm), I heard some noise from the window which I thought is made by wind. I didn’t give much thoughts at that moment. I went out for dinner in hotel and some walking afterwards. The dinner here is buffet which serves many different kinds of food. It looks good but tastes bad. After some walking, I went to the hot spring at the fifth floor. I doubt if it was really hot spring water though there’s sort of certificate showed in the hotel. When I got back to my room, the noise I heard before was still kept disturbing me for a whole night, it sounds like someone tried to draw my attention by making noises, it wasn’t some noise made by wind as I thought. I then realized it came both from window and wall. It never stopped until sunrise. I hardly slept much and felt bad so I went to breakfast earlier. The breakfast was horrible as the dinner before. The hotel check out time is 12:00 noon but I was hardly stayed for another minutes so I left at 8:00am and went for some sightseeing in Unzen. Seems many hotels in Unzen were no longer operating. I drove away to Obama before 10:30. I think the city was a bit haunted (the hotel is no doubt absolutely haunted). My legs were cramped since my car arrived hotel and it didn’t get better until I drove away from Unzen. Nagasaki is great but I won’t recommend anyone to stay overnight in Unzen city. The sight from Unzen Hell looks amazing and the cats there are adorable. Not much people other than sightseers and those who worked in Unzen.