Furuki

We loved having a real Japanese experience. The town of Mashiko is amazing if you love pottery and being next to a pottery studio was an amazing experience.

益子の陶芸村の中である事

セルフの自炊だが電子レンジが壊れていた。 無料の自転車は2台、しかも1台はパンク。 扇風機だけというのはこの暑さの中でギリギリの辛抱だった。 紅茶やコーヒーぐらいのサービスが欲しかった。

There was a special feeling of camaraderie among staff and visiting guests. The bbq facilities and access to the huge kitchen was a plus. Will definitely be back. We also were able to see active loading, firing of one of the amazing ceramic kilns on site. Wow!

The home has a lot of character, and the staff were very friendly and welcoming, the pottery class was great as well. The kitchen was fully equipped to make anything you wanted at the hostel

The place overall is a bit dusty and run down, which is reflected in the price so was not a problem. It could do with a lot of TCL to bring it back to its former glory but you get what you pay for and it was suitable for what we needed.

Charming helpful staff, even took us to the station, as there were no taxis available! 4 cats and 4 kittens made our stay! Easy to get to the Museums and Pottery shops on foot.The accommodation building is old and interesting architecture, traditional sleeping quarters, beautiful communal living space.It isn’t meant to be luxurious, for the rate they charge- it’s fine.

It’s quite a way from the railway station, so you need a cab, bus, or car to get there.The communal kitchen is well equipped, but rather grubby, the bathrooms are communal and both could do with updating, loos clean, if a little tatty. The bed linen was clean, but we found the Futons very thin and not very comfortable. Had there been more people staying whilst we were there, lack of privacy and noise would have been a problem.Great for large groups of friends though.

They had kittens roaming around. It was an interesting old building.

It’s old and dilapidated, dusty and slightly mouldy smelling everywhere. Showers and loos fine but basic. Unusual for what is essentially a backpackers hostel to have no basic shared supplies in the kitchen. It’s quite a way out of Mashiko past the bypass, with no nearby restaurants open midweek. Luckily it was quiet with only one other lovely couple there, so that was good, as it is a traditional house with only screen partitions. The first night there were kerosene cans lined up by the door INSIDE the great room … smelly and dangerous. We saw no evidence of any pottery other than beginner workshops - it’s not a real pottery any more it seems. Yes, being in Mashiko was worth it, and it was an interesting experience to have stayed there. Not one we would repeat.

Not much really. The Japanese hosts seemed kind but contact was very limited.

This is incredibly over-priced. The 300 year old building is showing every minute of its age with no sign of maintenance. The path up to it is very overgrown giving it a very derelict appearance. There is no security at all. The sliding doors between rooms do not close properly and many of the paper screens have holes in them. The other sliding door screens are peeling and do not slide properly. The outer corridor is lined with glass doors and screen doors. All the screens seem to have holes in them as mosquitoes are a huge problem. There are tins everywhere to burn coils but this leads to breathing smoke all the time. It is a worry with such a combustible environment. There is no way to get any breeze into rooms and no air conditioning. Everything feels unclean, although there are cleaning rags hanging up all over the place. The photos do not show any of this. The bathroom is as shown but there is only room for 2. There are no towels or hand towels provided. The western toilets are as shown but there is only 2 for the whole place. In addition there are 2 urinals so yet again women get the short shift., with men having 4 options. The toilets were also difficult to control insects. The kitchen is as shown with enough equipment for us to prepare our food. The worst aspect of our stay was the bedding. The futons were very thin and worn with no underpad at all. In 42 years of travelling to Japan from Australia I have never had such poor excuse for bedding. The "translator" working there said just put them on top of each other. As the beds had not been made up for us and we had to make them ourselves we had already tried that and the discomfort was so bad we cancelled our current booking and our next booking as well. When all the rooms are occupied this would not be an option. We were very disappointed in this property.