Saiya Sake Brewery Tours

Super nice getaway. There is not much around but this hotel is pretty much an all inclusive. They feed you breakfast and dinner buffet with late night snack as well. The food was great and overall was highly impressed with the value. Be careful planning your transportation too and from though as it is very limited.

Kashintei Shirahama is definitely one of the best Japanese ryokans we have visited. Location wise it's perfectly located right by Lake Tazawa, 30 minutes from Kakunodate, ski resort, Dakigaeri Valley, Tatsuko statue. The staff is extremely friendly and helpful, especially Nori-san and Minori. Whenever we hit a snag with our communications, Google Translate would hop in. The first floor is where the private onsen and public onsen are located. The rooms are on 3rd,4th and 5th, with 5 units on each floor. We got the room with 2 double beds. We ordered the half board option so we have Japanese breakfast and kaiseki dinner for 2 days. There's no duplicate dish, and we got to enjoy many Akita specialty such as Kiritanpo, Hinai chicken, Inaniwa udon. Every single dish is exquisite in taste and is a piece of art. The meals are served at a private dining room. You can also use the private onsen free off charge, it's first come first serve for 40 minutes max. There's a free parking lot across there street and elevator, so it's not of a concern with moving the luggage to the room. The bed is very comfortable, we slept like a baby. It's very relaxing vibe.

The property is at a beautiful location overlooking Lake Tazawako. Everyone including front desk staff and those who work in the kitchen and restaurant are extremely friendly. They would offer any assistance regardless of what customer needs and would make sure you are satisfied with their service. However, the property is a bit run down and one can tell that only minimal or basic maintenance have been done over the years. While the property noted it has bathroom and shared bathroom at booking site, it in fact doesn't have any private bathrooms in all the rooms. The only bathroom is inside a spa facility and customers has to book a time to use it. Also the property noted no smoking is allowed but it has set aside a room for smokers located amongst all non smoking rooms on the third floor. Strong smell of cigarettes is circulated in the corridor. It would be better if smokers are required to smoke outside the property.