It all started with a warm foot bath at the reception, along with a glass of drink (whatsoever your heart desires) and a view that made you forget everything. You would not even realize that they were checking you in and making you wait. Then they made you chose a yukata for the period of your stay. They were not the usual mass-produced hotel yukatas either, but beautiful high quality ones. The rest of the day was up to us (sightseeing, enjoying the hotel's many facilites, anything but sleeping).

The room was spacious. We had one of the traditional Japanese style room. But do not let the decor fool you. One step into the bathroom and it was like another planet. The bathroom was not one of those boxes that hotels in Japan are known for. It was luxuriously big and really state-of-the-art everything and came with everything you could ever want (anything from the usual soap, shampoo, toothbrush to make-up cleanser and moisturizer).

We went out for lunch with the hotel's car (free of charge), the driver/reception dropped us off at a restaurant by the lake. We spent the rest of the day exploring. Some of us went back to the hotel (by bus) earlier at about 5.30 (at which time the hotel had made calls to our international mobile number to warn us that all buses stopped operating at 6). The staff were waiting outside the hotel for us with a relieved expression that soon turned into anxiety when they saw that only half of us was back. We told them not to worry because we were a bunch of travel freaks. They still insisted on making more international calls and managed to reach my parents who also told them not to worry. At 6 p.m. even the GM was outside, waiting by the side of the street on the lookout for the rest of the group. By the time my parents did show up at around 6.45 everyone clapped their hands, while my sister and I laughed our head off and said "we told you so !". That was how personal and caring the staff were.

Dinner was also another personal affair where they cooked according to our prefference. It was Kaiseki at its best. At three quarter through the meal we had to make them stop serving main courses and we asked for dessert because we simply could not eat any more. We only had time to take picture of the appetizer and dessert (that was how good dinner was. Ha !).

We proceeded to enjoying the hotel's facilities by booking two private onsens. The guys went to one and we went to the other. The one we went to was an outside wooden tub filled with negatively charged ions to detox your body. We had a laugh and we felt wonderful after the soak. When we came back to our rooms, the futons were already laid out, waiting for us.

The next day we tried the stone bath at the lobby level which was wonderful, but we only went for half the time because it was so hot. You were supposed to spend a few minutes on the hot stone and a few minutes enjoying the wonderful scenery from a private terrace. We also tried the onsen downstairs which was good too, but our favourite was the rooftop outdoor tub.

It did not come cheap, but I should say that it WAS worth it.