[Hotel Review] Nikko Tokinoyuu Hotel (日光季の遊)

Entrance to Toki no Yuu

Nikko is a great destination for people who are visiting Japan and want to get close to nature and at the same time experience Japanese cultural heritage at its best. The small city is located around 1 hour and 40 minutes away from Tokyo by train, and here you can find some magnificent temples and enjoy the beautiful scenery that surrounds the historical city.
This is also a nice place to try a stay at a traditional Japanese ryokan hotel where you can sleep in a traditional Japanese room with tatami-mat and soak yourself in the Japanese hot spring bath called onsen.

Check the room availability for Nikko Tokinoyuu on Agoda.com.

During my recent visit to Nikko I had the pleasure of spending a night at hotel Nikko Tokino Yuu (日光季の遊). This hotel/ryokan was founded in 2011, and the coined name Toki no Yuu means "four seasons and leisure".
The hotel was easy to get to, as it was located on the Japan Romance Road where all the main tourist busses pass by, and it was only a couple of minutes by foot from the famous "holy bridge" Shinkyo (神橋 ). The location was really great, with the Toshogu (東照宮) shrine and other major attractions within walking distance. On the day we arrived we left our luggage at the hotel and went sightseeing, and returned later in the evening for the stay. The hotel's staff was very friendly and helpsome, and it seemed like they were used to having foreign guests.

Vending machines selling all sorts of products

Guestroom

We had chosen a traditional Japanese washitsu (和室) room with tatami-mats and mattress on the floor for our stay, and it was a spacious room (after Japanese standards) nicely arranged with futon matts on the floor ready for us to use. In the room there were also various manuals in English to help foreign guests with everything from putting on a yukata robe to how to use the water boiler.

Here are some pictures of our hotel room:

Information about the hotel and the area provided in English at the hotel room

Room safe

Onsen (Hot Spring)

In the evening we went out to a local bar, and returned in the evening for a night bath at the hot spring in the basement of the hotel. Luckily there weren't too many people, so we could relax and enjoy the bath.

Credit: Nikko Tokinoyuu Hotel

Breakfast

In the morning we got up early to have breakfast at the hotel, which was included in our stay. In the hotel's restaurant they had prepared a small sized buffet where they served some salads, scrambled eggs, sausage and bread with jam. They also had a small drink bar with various types of tea and a coffee machine.

All in all we had a very pleasant stay at Tokino Yuu. The hotel seemed to be very popular, and both the day we came and the day we left they had a sign outside saying they were already fully occupied. For people interested in staying a night I would definitely recommend an early booking.!