I loved the uniqueness of the experience. We embraced what we had walked into and as a result had a great time. You see the town was deserted. Most houses boarded up. (An aging population I believe?) It was a short train or bus ride to all the touristy hakone stuff which made the location good.

Ok, I want to clarify. I did like the experience as we embraced the unusual circumstances. It’s more a be prepared warning. The tiny izakaya only opened one night out of 3 we were there. The limited convenience store and bottle shop were closed by 3 or 4 (depending on the day.) so be organised with food or prepared to travel on the bus for restaurants. The very few locals we did see would avoid us. The villa was very, very, run down and cold. The garden and discarded furniture in the yard added to an abandoned feel. We embraced it as it felt like we had stepped into a horror movie. 🎥 laughing and enjoying the bizarre abandon of place.

It was such a heartwarming stay, and the location is incredible, looking outside to see mountain views and trees rustling in the wind was phenomenal. Location is amazing, the house is good, and the host Yoshi is really nice and really helpful!

Nothing bad!

It had a good view and the surroundings were very peaceful and quiet

The place was run down and very dusty, the floor boards were broken downstairs and damaged

Spacious, very clean, old authentic Japanese house. Surrounded by green, crickets at night

Kitchen minimally equipped , steep climb to the road/parking (hard with suitcases). Lacking English instructions on utility usage (Laundry, hot water, etc.) Drive distance from town/shop/restaurants

The bedrooms were comfortable, spacious, clean with amazing views. The host kept in touch.

Unfortunately before we arrived, the host said that the property had been damaged by previous guests. Despite this the downstairs was a bit tired and there was one small sofa bearing in mind the villa accommodated up to x8 people. Also the location was up and down very steep hills which was hard work with suitcases.

authenticity

slightly tired interior, could be more clean (especially behind the bed). would recommend a light repair

The surroundings. Strictly this! The view from the windows is fantastic.

Where should I start?... The photos are NOT representative of the current state of the complete house. First there is a very strong, pungent, overall smell of mold, fungus like an old cellar. There is a huge, old sofa in the living room that smells the most. Opening windows doesn't help. Yea, even with the fresh air from the mountains around. The smell must also come from the carpet, which is hiding broken floor supports (most probably rotten wood). Almost every wooden part of the house (windows, doors) is in a bad state. Imbibed with moisture, wet, fungus, broken paper part, abstract repairs, obstructed rails. The decoration is some old furniture. The bar is full of random empty bottles with no reason of existence. They are trash. Not decoration. There is s wall broken with holes because of sharp, hardback of the chairs. The kitchen is big but very very old, and in strange state. The fridge seemed dirty with dirt from hands. There are some remaining from various sauces and other stuff with unknown origin and expiration. The only new part of the house is the bathroom which is working. The bedrooms are equipped with some spring mattresses which are also old and quite hard. Given the state of the house, we did not considered them clean just because they look clean. The lights are not the ones showing in the photo. The entrance has a rug written ZEN which does not help you to feel ZEN but gives correct information about the house age and abandoned state. The vegetation around the house is abandoned. No pruning and trash removal. Most probably in couple of seasons they will enter the house. Advice to the owner. Physical wear of a house, especially close to a forest, is expected. The owners are there to take care of it Please throw away trash including the sofa and carpets in the living room. Repair the windows and doors. Replace beds. These are basics. Till these are done, please shut it down. Then please, update the photos.

The house is unique and beautiful in a lovely nature setting We were 3 people so it was big for us If you want to experience traditional house it is great place

My initial plan was to arrive by car, but I had to arrive by train, so it was hard to carry heavy luggage uphill for 10 minutes including passing unsupervised train track Also the owner, which I have never saw had advised me wrong key code which held us back for 30 minutes, the comm with the owner via booking messages is slow. Also I was very disappointed that the owner agreed but changed his mined regarding leaving the luggage in the house only for 1 hour more than check out, causing me to carry our luggage and having to pay extra for storage on the train station. The house is very old and is good maybe for part of museum but I think less suited for long stays. Parts of the facilities were uncomfortable.