Road Station Mizunosato Sawara

Staff was fantastic and helpful. Room, by Tokyo standards was quite large. But the property itself was so busy with high turnover that it was not very clean. The issue was the other rude guests leaving garbage and possessions in the halls. Like a messy college dorm. Cleaning staff could not keep up. I felt bad for them. The room layout very awkward. Outlets and light switches covered by the head of the bed so that you would accidentally hit them in the night. Duvet would not stay on the bed. Mattress slipped off the frames. No closets. TV perpendicular to the beds. Just awkward. The location hard to get to and confusing as there were apartment properties with the same name close by so cabs constantly went to the wrong location.

It is a high-class hotel with high class staff and amenities. Restaurants around the area require some walking. Most of the restaurants in the hotel are booked up days in advance. However, if you call the concierge you can get a last-minute reservation. We are still in disbelief that this hotel of this quality and caliber felt it necessary to charge $2,700 Yen on top of the already extremely high price for the hotel room in order to use the pool and hot tub. It was the most expensive hotel we booked in Japan and were quite shocked that it was the only one that added an even more additional charge on top of it. It's kind of embarrassing actually. We used five different hotels in Japan and all of them allowed use of the onsen and the facilities as part of the room price. Likely would not come back to this one because of just that.

This apartment hotel exceeded all expectations. Perfect for a family of four, the apartment is spacious by Japanese standards, has in-suite laundry, kitchen, fridge/freezer, toaster, microwae, vacuum cleaner, utensils and dishes, dish soap and sponge, laundry basket and rack, plenty of towels and of course, clean to a Japanese standard. The apartment is relatively soundproof as well, given its next to JR corridor. Recommend!