Luxury accommodation in Japan: “Second Golden Triangle” & rural additions:

In my first blogpost – before the coronavirus outbreak – I introduced my Google Map with all the activities, hotels and restaurants of a three-week trip through Japan in style, together with my husband. In the meantime, I let a year gone by without publishing any more content about my big journey to the Land of the Rising Sun. But now, I do not wait any longer, here is my second of five more blogposts to follow about my last international trip before corona changed our lives. It is about where to go for luxury hotels in Japan without overspending. I think we should go somewhere fabulous once we are able to travel again. And Japan is a worthy goal! After letting you know about where to stay in style in this country, I will go into following Japan topics in the time to come: find and reserve gourmet restaurants, my choice of fine dining spots, how it is staying at a luxury ryokan and two off the beaten path destinations.

Before coming to the subject of luxury lodging in Japan, here my Google Map of the trip, as a reminder. And this together with the itinerary in keywords.

My Google Map of our Japanese journey in style

In this map, you find all the details of our trip complete with short descriptions and pictures.

As to the route we took in Japan, we opted for the so called “Second Golden Triangle”. This extends the “Golden Triangle” of Tokyo, Kyoto and Osako by Takayama and Kanazawa in the Japan Alps. Further, we added three more rural spots – Hakone, Kiso Valley and Yakushima Island – to immerse even more in the country’s culture.

Types of accommodations in Japan

As you might know, there are not only Western-style hotels

in Japan but also Japanese ryokans.

These are traditional Japanese inns that feature tatami-matted rooms, communal hot spring baths (onsen) and other public areas where guests may wear their personal yukata (kimono). You are here on half board, and often you are served Kaiseki Ryori, multi-course Japanese style haute cuisine.

But no worry, if you attach much value to having your own bathroom, as my husband and I do, there are also luxury ryokans. These have not only a private bathroom but also sometimes your own onsen!

When traveling Japan, it is strongly recommended to book at least once or twice a ryokan. Only then you get the opportunity to experience a traditional Japanese lifestyle.

My husband and I went for a mix of Western hotels and ryokans. Find below a short overview on all the eight hotels we stayed in Japan. Just to remind you, all our lodging is shown in my mentioned Google Map.

Hotels to stay in style on our Japanese tour

Out of the eight hotels in total we had three ryokans, and this at the beginning of our trip. We stayed at a luxury and strictly traditional one in Hakone (Madoka no Mori),

a rural mid-scale one in the Kiso Valley (Takimi Onsen Inn)

and a mid-scale to luxury one with some Western elements in Takayama (Honjin Hiranoya Kachoan).

I will go more into details of our ryokan adventures in further blogposts. And this when writing about our stay at Madoka no Mori in Hakone and later on when reporting on two rural Japanese destinations (Kiso Valley including Takimi Onsen Inn and Yakushima Island).

As to the remaining hotels, we stayed at following ones: a new comfortable hotel in Kanazawa (UAN Kanazawa Hotel), a luxury boutique hotel in old Kyoto (Hotel Mume), an upscale chain hotel in Osaka (InterContinental), the best high-end accommodation option in Yakushima Island (Sankara Hotel) and a luxury hotel in the heart of Tokyo’s business district (Palace Hotel).

While not all the hotels equally appealed to me, I would stay at all of them again. Whereas the one in Kanazawa was handy although a bit too much on the functional side, I was a great fan of our hotels in Hakone (Japan immersion in perfection, a blogpost about our stay here follows),

Kyoto (very personal with a tasty breakfast)

and in Tokyo (excellent location, balcony with stunning view and great club lounge).

The one in the Kiso Valley was a bit basic for me in terms of amenities (private albeit not en suite bathroom) but all the rest was so good that I would return in a heartbeat (more about it in a post to come).

3-week luxury Japan trip: looking back and forward 

After I went into the itinerary and activities of our three-week Japanese journey in my last post, I dived deeper in the issue of high-end hotels in Japan in this one. My next one covers dining, and this for gourmets (find & reserve restaurants, my choice of fine dining spots).

In further blogposts, I will describe our stay at a luxury (and very traditional) ryokan (Madoka no Mori in Hakone) and report on two rural spots that are not so frequently visited (Kiso Valley and Yakushima Island).

Date of visit: November 2019

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