BYAKU Narai

Everything was superb. The room was amazing. The staff very helpful and friendly. The dinner and breakfast were great. The ambience of the place was stunning. A great end of the Muso valley walk for us. As a bonus it had an Onson

There was nothing to dislike.

If you have a chance to stay at Byaku, don’t hesitate for a second. This was exceptional. Every single detail was considered, the building is astounding – four separate sites in Narai with one of them being a converted sake brewery. The dinner was the best that we had in Japan. The shared bath is also wonderful. A note – if you have a chance to choose, staying at the main hotel building looking onto the courtyard is recommended. We stayed at the annex which was very luxurious as the room had two bedrooms but the renovation style is more modern. I can’t comment on the other two sites but I would rank the main hotel first.

A note that you are relatively close to the train line, as all the buildings are on that side of the village but the trains seem to stop running around 10 or 11 pm.

Great location in the middle of Narai. Dinner was delicious.

Main building is a lovely historic building that has been beautifully renovated. The location in the middle of town is great. Very special to take a walk after dinner in town with no one around. Ofuro was well designed for privacy and a little greenery. Great dinner.

I did not realize they had made an annex in recent years and was booked into one of those rooms. Deeply disappointed as it was a brand new build and felt very generic. Another member of the group with in the 2-story store house in the annex which was beautiful but very hot. Also, annex rooms seem to have 2 semi-double beds which is not nice for couples. In sum: be sure you book in the original building and not the new annex. The annex is not worth the investment in my opinion. The main building is much nicer and worth the investment.