Beautiful little Ryokan style hotel for this experience in Kyoto

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The staff at Nazuna Tsubaki were incredibly welcoming from the moment we arrived. We were greeted with lovely welcome drinks, which were such a nice touch. Everyone was so kind and attentive, and their warm hospitality made us feel truly welcome.

There were a few things that affected my comfort during the stay. Personally, I felt that the towels and pajamas did not smell fresh enough. They had a particular smell that I can’t quite describe, but they didn’t give me the feeling of being freshly laundered. Although the ryokan itself was lovely, having the bedroom and toilet on different floors was extremely inconvenient, especially at night. The stairs felt very steep and unsafe, and I honestly found it frightening to go down them in the dark. This made nighttime trips to the bathroom particularly uncomfortable. The location also felt quite far from Kyoto’s main sights and must-see attractions, which made it less convenient than we had hoped for sightseeing. There was also what appeared to be mold on the shower ceiling, which was unpleasant to see.

The fantastic atmosphere of the hotel, the restaurant and the kindness of the staff !

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Breakfast was excellent. Lots of variety. The dinner was memorable and interesting, with lots of different presentations of wagyu beef. (Worth only doing once though.) Staff were super friendly and helpful. I loved the private bathtub, very comfortable and fun.

The room layout was shockingly bad, bordering on dangerous for some people. There's ~18" of clearance between the bed and the wall. As a middle-aged able-bodied person, I was fine to navigate this and balance carefully, but this would be quite bad for a lot of folks. It would be *very* difficult for some people to get into the far end of the bed. I almost fell a couple times, and the exposed concrete stone was aesthetically pleasing but the edges were fairly sharp. There was barely enough space in the room to place only one suitcase, so the second one we placed in the bathroom, which felt downright silly. I've never been in a hotel where I needed to store my suitcase in a bathroom for lack of space, let alone one I paid >$1k/night for. There was a fan in the bathroom that couldn't be turned off. It hummed noisily, and closing the door didn't fully mute the noise. Finally, all the lights were motion-activated and can't be controlled manually, which sounds nice, except when it's the middle of the night and you're trying to limit the brightness in the room while using the bathroom, and then you're stuck with glaring bright lights. I've been to some truly wonderful ryokans that were worth every penny, but this one ain't it. It was breathtakingly expensive for a surprisingly poor and cramped experience.