Marine Blue Yakushima

“Great location, fantastic staff”

This hotel is right on the most beutiful beach of Yakushima. It's a bit off so you definitively need to rent a car to stay here. The rooms are ok for two, but small if you are more than that. The bed, as usual in Japan, was much to hard for me The bathroom is really small, but on the other hand, yo… more

This hotel is right on the most beutiful beach of Yakushima. It's a bit off so you definitively need to rent a car to stay here. The rooms are ok for two, but small if you are more than that. The bed, as usual in Japan, was much to hard for me The bathroom is really small, but on the other hand, you are not there for the bathroom. The room, as well as the common areas are kept very clean. The service is really great. The women who runs the hotel only speaks japanese but they really try with Google translate to answer questions and explain things. The food is fantastic. Dinner is like 10 different japanese dishes and breakfast maybe 8. Also they tryed to adapt the menu somewhat when they saw that our daughter wanted a somewhat westernized menu. So this is of course important to know before you come here, the food is truly japanes. We love that. Not everyone does. The beach beutiful and right outside the room. Swimming is great, but not for small children as waves can get rather big and it gets deep as soon as you enter. There is some nice snorkeling just 100 meters to the right of the hotel. Very little corals but lots of different tropical fish. Turtles in big numbers come to nest on the beach and if you are lucky you might get to see that, or see the whils snorkeling. There are guided night tours on the beach for that purpose. The only thing we missed, as often is the case in japanese beach hotels, was sunchairs. Highly recommend this hotel, but think twice before you bring small children.

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“Mixed feelings.”

Staying in the place right now. Will be leaving tomorrow. I got a quite mixed feeling about it. Location wise, it not convenient to get to from either the two ports and Yakushima airport. While it's so close to the beach and you literally step out of the room and already on the beach. The hotel … more

Staying in the place right now. Will be leaving tomorrow. I got a quite mixed feeling about it. Location wise, it not convenient to get to from either the two ports and Yakushima airport. While it's so close to the beach and you literally step out of the room and already on the beach. The hotel is managed by a group of old ladies who are super nice and try their very best to accommodate your needs, within their power of course. Food is fresh and delicious. Not extravagant but enough to make you satisfied. There are some downsides though like, Room is too small and bath room inside is even smaller.(which is common in Japan). Public bathroom only opens from 17:00hrs to 22hrs. The sound proofing of the rooms is just horrible. You can literally hear every word people saying in the aisle, in the lobby and in the kitchen. Yes, it's a rather small place...if you are looking for a very quite place to stay, it might not be the one. I'm not saying it's a horrible place. On the contrary, I do appreciate the work these ladies put in to this place and I wish all the best to them all.

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“Unusual Experience”

Large ryokan style room, private bathroom, outdoor sitting area, right on the beach. We booked three nights here. The only problem was that when we arrived we were told we didn’t have breakfast and dinner included, that that was only for guests staying more than three nights. (At least, this is wha… more

Large ryokan style room, private bathroom, outdoor sitting area, right on the beach. We booked three nights here. The only problem was that when we arrived we were told we didn’t have breakfast and dinner included, that that was only for guests staying more than three nights. (At least, this is what it seems was told to us. The woman who owns/runs Marine Blue spoke almost no English, and this, coupled with our non-existent ability to speak more than 5 words in Japanese, did not make understanding each other easy. We both started using Google Translate on our phones, but this too was convoluted.) Anyway, the woman said she could arrange for us to have breakfast and dinner the next two days but it was impossible for us to have dinner that night. It was 4 p.m. at this point. We asked if she could just make us rice and eggs for dinner. No, not possible. Not being able to eat at the hotel we’re staying would not usually be a problem, we’d just walk to another place to eat, since we’re big walkers. But there is NOTHING in either direction within walking distance, and we walked about 45 minutes each way. We could have taken a bus back to Miyanoura, but the buses stop running at about 5p.m. That would have been a very early dinner. So our first night here for dinner we ate the snacks we were fortunate enough to have traveled with: peanuts, cookies, watermelon, oranges. And we bought a beer from the vending machine. The dining area has 7 or 8 tables. At no time did we see all the tables filled. Usually only one or two were occupied. I bring this up because the next morning when we arrived for breakfast an ADDITIONAL table was set up a little away from the other tables, in the lounge/sitting area. This was our table. What? We looked over ate the other tables: only two couples sitting at two tables, the others all empty. What is going on here? It made us feel a bit like intruders, putting them to the trouble of feeding us. There’s nothing indicated when making our reservations online that you won’t be able to order meals if you stay 3 or fewer nights, or that you need to order your meals at the same time you’re making your reservation. This is something future guests should know about. On the plus side, we had a very relaxing stay here overall. There is free Wi-F (there was some confusion about this on Trip Advisor). The beach was very nice and clean and we even saw a large turtle come up onto the beach at about dusk one night.

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