Hamanoyu

Hamanoyu is everything you could expect from a 4-star onsen hotel located at a popular domestic tourist destination; the lobby was thoroughly impressive, the room, although a bit small, was very clean and quite comfortable, and the onsen was supreme. The location near the shoreline of lake Suwa, and next to a range of other onsen hotels (as well as restaurants and convenience stores), leaves little to be desired, and there is also free parking.

Well, at the time of writing this review, Hamanoyu is no longer available to book via Booking.com, which in itself is quite sad (and probably due to one-too-many bad experiences involving a rude gaijin). Perhaps as a result of this, there was no English whatsoever in the hotel (signs, booklets, and so on - I was also the only non-Japanese guest in the entirely of the hotel at the time), and no staff could (or desired) to speak a single word of English. More so, if you are not completely fluent in Japanese, when asking the staff 'yukkuri hanashite kudasai', they actually tended to speak faster, and when similarly asking the staff to use simpler Japanese words, they were much did not. I have myself witnessed firsthand plenty of foreigners behaving badly (sometimes very badly) in Japan, so I have a very high degree of understanding, but I still occasionally felt not very welcome by virtue of something I have no control over, because of something I have not myself done, which is not a very pleasant feeling.

Lovely hotel, far exceeded our expectations. Perfect base from which to visit Matsumoto andthe Flying Teahouses of Chino.The onsen is very nice and the breakfast was spectacular!

We found it a little difficult to find an evening meal in Kami Suwa and it would have been great if we could have eaten in the hotel.

Clean hot spring bath

Room is too small

Lovely personal Awesome breakfast Great bath

If you are searching for a traditional styled guestroom and book this as a solo traveler you might get disappointed.

The room was surprisingly spacious, the bathhouse was very relaxing and the breakfast was amazing. A great place to relax after walking around the tranquil lake