A really wonderful experience exploring Daihonzan Eiheiji and learning about Soto Zen. The folks at the lodging we also super helpful and the meals were fantastic.

I can't think of any negatives.

There were 5 of of us in the party including my wife and I and our 3 adult sons. The hotel was in a beautiful location next to a river and a couple of hundred yards from the famous Zen Buddhist Eiheiji temple. The staff were exceedingly friendly and helpful throughout our stay. We were taken to the afternoon Zazan/Contemplation session at the temple and again at 04:45 AM very early the following morning to watch the monks prayers/chanting at the temple - an enchanting experience. Also we should mention the meals (breakfast and dinner) which all comprised traditional Japanese Buddhist cuisine comprised of multiple meticulously prepared dishes. On the second day we went to the famous Fukui dinosaur museum with many species discovered locally and named after the city.

It would be very difficult to improve on our stay. Thank you.

Tutto! La struttura di recente costruzione è bellissima, ben tenuta, accogliente e pulitissima. Tutto lo staff è molto gentile ed efficiente. La sala per la colazione e la cena è bella, funzionale e pulita. I pasti ottimi e curatissimi. L'onsen fantastico ! Perfetta la posizione per raggiungere il tempio e la relazione con il tempio stesso che consente di fare meditazione e assistere al primo servizio del mattino con i monaci. Un'esperienza unica, appagante e profonda. Lo consiglio con piacere!

The hotel was really nice and the staff extremely kind

We had mixed feelings about the zen experience (the main reason we stayed here), specifically we had the meditation session in the afternoon when a monk was explaining everything in Japanese with plenty of details but the translation was handled by this man who didn’t speak proper English and so all we got was “now look at the wall and think of nothing” which massively cheapened the experience, even more so when the day after we woke up early to go to the morning ceremony and this time there were several monks who spoke English very well, which just left us stunned at the choice of letting that man handle the translation of what was for us the most important experience.