Ryokan Karasawa

“Brilliant family-run suburban Western-fusion Ryokan.”

The hotel has both types of rooms but we chose one of the Japanese style (with futons) as they look out onto the lovely Japanese garden at the back - an entrancing morning greeting - so can't comment on the Western-style rooms. The family are so welcoming; the owner (Shuji-san?) will collect and re… more

The hotel has both types of rooms but we chose one of the Japanese style (with futons) as they look out onto the lovely Japanese garden at the back - an entrancing morning greeting - so can't comment on the Western-style rooms. The family are so welcoming; the owner (Shuji-san?) will collect and return you to the railway station, which is a couple of miles away, if requested, he speaks good English and his wife prepares the most amazing Japanese breakfasts we have ever seen; impressively, she took great care to ensure that what she served for me was gluten-free - rare in Japan - while my wife was able to partake of the true Japanese fare. Western-style breakfast is available - you can choose on the previous day - but we always took the Japanese option so can't comment on the Western fare. Special mention must go to their nephew Seigi (I hope I spelled that correctly) and his brothers who having spent their childhood in France with their parents are fluent in French, English and Japanese and were extremely helpful with information about the Kanazawa area. They also run a bar downtown - Furansu (France in Japanese!) - well worth a visit. Finally, the hotel have bicycles for hire (¥500/day), which are very useful as the place is a little way out of town, it's easy cycling as the area is very flat and you can cycle down the nearby riverbank into town if you wish; alternatively, you can catch the bus into town - fare is ¥280 at the time of writing.

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“wonderful Ryokan”

It was a wondeful moment share with the kindly Karasawa Family. Nice place we can relax and enjoy the good japanese food . Our Room was really nice in japanese style with a little garden . The staff speak in japanese, english and french , they explain all we need to know to visit Kanazawa city. We … more

It was a wondeful moment share with the kindly Karasawa Family. Nice place we can relax and enjoy the good japanese food . Our Room was really nice in japanese style with a little garden . The staff speak in japanese, english and french , they explain all we need to know to visit Kanazawa city. We had good memories thank yoou again!

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“Rooms traditionally clean and beautiful but TLC needed”

The purpose for our visit was to relax quietly after a busy 6 days in Tokyo and Kyoto and experience a traditional Japanese ryokan accommodation and that’s exactly what we got. Our room could not have been more spacious (we did have the largest room) with an indoor balcony with two chairs that look… more

The purpose for our visit was to relax quietly after a busy 6 days in Tokyo and Kyoto and experience a traditional Japanese ryokan accommodation and that’s exactly what we got. Our room could not have been more spacious (we did have the largest room) with an indoor balcony with two chairs that looked over the small garden, a large sleeping space and separate private bathroom and porch area. We were kindly picked up and dropped off to the station and was made very welcome by the host. We enjoyed the clean onsen and the hot dip! After a chat with the host the building is 40years old where I imagine the surrounding buildings and main roads were built after it. This therefore means it is now surrounded by the background noise from the road and slightly overlooked from the two storey homes around it. At night we pulled our screens across which reduced this noise and we slept comfortably and warm in our floor beds. The communal areas do seem a little tired and in need of some tlc and sorting out but for us, for one night, it was great to quietly recharge our batteries

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