I have a hard time writing this review, cause I feel very conflicted about Kazeya. My honest thoughts: The people running the place are very nice! Helpful, thoughtful and really trying to make your time here a great stay. I really appreciate them a lot. When I talked about my ear problems and some noise (i'll get to that later) they really tried to make me comfortable. Thank you! The food here is also great, you have a small dinning place for yourself and they serve amazing things. Some of the best meals we had in the whole country! The general atmosphere is also good: the decorations are nice, there is a small library with books and some games, and there are private onsen (one inside and one outside) that we really enjoyed! After a day of hiking a relaxing onsen is just the thing you need. What conflicted me: It's felt like the place really was rundown in some ways. There were splatters and stains on several walls and closets, there was a stain of what I suspect to be blood on the duvet, there were some spiderwebs under the sink. Also one towel we got really smelt like sweat strongly in one spot, which also didn't give the impression it was cleaned well. We got a new towel when we asked, but all in all it made me not feel comfortable, even though I would not say I am a person that particularly needs super clean places. Also there was a strong smell of mold (which I can imagine in the sense that it seemed like quite a humid place mostly made of wood!). In the bedroom we found this smell too strong so we slept on the tatami in an other section of our place. With the windows open for extensive amounts of time, we got used to the smell. In other ryokans I did not experience smells this strong. This place is not recommended if your are smell sensitive! And lastly, the airco's and heaters in the general spaces and in the hallway are quite loud. We heard them in our room still (even with two - admittedly relatively thin - doors in between). And there was also a constant hum from the outside. If you are sound sensitive, this might bother you. When I asked the big airco was put off in our dining spot, which was really sweet and helped a lot with the noise :) But the heaters can't be turned off. I would not recommend this place if you are sound sensitive. So yeah: on one hand we felt warmly welcomed, taken care of and happy in the onsen. On the other hand we felt some renovations are really needed and the spots of dirt and mold are a bit too much. Also I experienced it as loud (but I do have broken ears so I am more sensitive maybe than other people). If that is fixed however, this place would be a 5 out of 5 for me :)

AVOID, THIS IS A TRAP. I WAS SCAMMED 19,000 YEN EXTRA FOR TWO MEALS. When I got there it was eerily empty with no signs of life except one staff member. The staff member saw me walking up the street and entering with my suitcase but just ignored me. I had to hit the bell for someone to acknowledge me. The host didn't show me to my room and just watched me lug my huge suitcase (there's no elevator). The public bus driver provided better service. Hospitality was lacking but I figured I just needed to lower my expectations. The room was freezing cold (the thermometer read 6 c) when I entered and I had to find the heaters and turn them on myself. The room was advertised as "overlooking the garden and the majestic Hida mountain range". Two windows have zero views, they just face walls. The other window is overlooking the private bath house. This window is south facing so it never gets any sunlight. Of course there's no tables or chairs for the windows. There goes my plan to destress by viewing the mountains. Talking a closer looks around the room, things went from bad to worse. There was a cigarette left in the trash bin. No tea in the tea jar, just junk. The yukata feels like it's from an internment camp. It was tattered and even had a big crusty stain on it. The only thing waiting for me in the room was a stink bug. I caught a dozen stink bugs over two days in the middle of January. Stink bugs can't survive freezing temperatures. The stink bugs aren't coming from outside. This place is simply infested. The bath was a disappointment. As other reviews have mentioned, the water is so clear it's basically hot tap water. The men's outdoor bath is next to the street. The bright LED street lights shine in, you can hear the traffic, and see the headlights through the wooden fence. The baths get no views of the mountains. The meal was my last hope. I paid an extra 3,500 yen per night to include dinner. Then an additional 5,000 yen for the kaiseki dinner. That's a total of 8,500 yen for a single dinner (drinks not included). You have to cook your own meal and there's no way to adjust the temperature. There was also no ventilation so the table next to me was coughing up a storm. After explaining the meal, the host said he'll be back with the rice. After waiting over 20 minutes I went looking for the host. I had to call out into the abyss until I got a hold of a staff member who finally brought me rice. It's been 25 minutes so naturally everything had gone cold. The host never returned for the rest of the night. Day two went from bad to the absolute worst. They mentioned in an email I can change my dinner to a sukiyaki dinner. No price adder was mentioned for the sukiyaki dinner. Only the kaiseki dinner had a price adder of 5,000 yen extra. I put in a request for a sukiyaki dinner for the second night. HALF WAY THROUGH MY DINNER the host interrupts me and tells me that the sukiyaki dinner is going to be 7,000 YEN EXTRA! "We forgot to tell you... Is that alright?" I ALREADY STARTED EATING. They could have told me this in the original email. They could have told me when they replied to my email request. They could have told me they confirmed my meal plan at check-in. I was there in person for a full day. Instead they waited until I started eating to tell me the price. I completely lost my appetite and felt nauseous. I left half the meat. They knew they scammed me. I paid the full 12,000 yen extra that night. No attempts of consolation were made for any of the problems. I told them I'll skip breakfast. I couldn't get out of there fast enough. I can't believe I traveled all the way to Japan and into the mountains for this. This has been very painful. Whenever I hear of Hida or Okuhida, I'm reminded of this experience and it makes me incredibly sad

Complete rip off. The area is filled with ryokan. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this nightmare of a supposed to be "4 star hotel" (smelly room, unhealthy environment, dirty and very noisy). We payed for 2 nights and ran away from this place after the first night. Sadly, we had to endure one night due to location and time constraints it was impossible to escape to another hotel. When we asked the manager about the terrible smell in the room, he just replied saying "japanese style" and laughed. Unbelieveable taking into account I have lived here and I can assure the hotel cleanliness, maintenance and service is nothing but far from anything to do with "Japanese style".

🌸Comfortable and Humble Ryokan! The outside look old but the room was clean, staff is VERY friendly and attentive. Speaking beginner English. 🌸There's two private Onsen ♨️ (Outdoor & Indoor) both comfy but we like the indoor more cuz bigger! There's also Public Onsen specifically for Men and Women. 🌸There's bicycle you can ride but we never used. 🌸There's one Drink Vending machine inside the Ryokan 🌸The food is delicious but Hida beef set is Highly recommended cuz i like beef 🥳 🌸~3 Minute walk to the Bus stop [Shinhotakaonsen-guchi] PLEASE NOTE!! 🔥Not ATM Machine nearby! Nearest one is around 3.4KM -/+ (We walked cuz we're run out of Cash🥲, BUT the ATM was close cuz it's Public Holiday! We have to walk back and forth! don't want you to experience the pain! Make sure you have enough cash! 🔥Even at the Shinjotaka Ropeway, the restaurant only accept cash(According to Hotel manager, previously ATM is available over there but due to the Covid, not anymore) 🔥If you really need cash, you can actually ask the Hotel for exchange(Pay them with card + 10% Comission) and they will give you the CASH 💰. We desperately need money for the Bus fee on the way back to Takayama 💫. 🔥At the reception counter they have limited choice of cup Noodle ¥300 each. 🔥If you plan to stay relax at the Ryokan, i highly suggest to bring lots of Junk food from Takayama stn etc!! Food is the most important l!! 💫💫 Enjoy your stay here 🤗

Easily accessed by car, very traditional Japanese style accommodation with Tatami room and hot spring. Receptionist can speak English and he will introduce you the facilities. Good experience to try and Enjoy my stay here!

This was an amazing experience for us! Beautiful area, very friendly staff, and wonderful onsen! The traditional meals were also delicious and worth scheduling with your stay! I do recommend having a rental car, it is a rural area and day trips will be easier with a vehicle! We went to places like Sugoroku Gorge, a hike up Mt Yake and day trips to Hida and Takayama! All were within an hour drive of the ryokan!

Really nice traditional Ryokan. Especially the outdoor public onsen is amazing. Also the dinner was delicious and the staff was very friendly. We had a great stay here!

This Ryokan is excellent, I think is covers every aspect one expects from a ryokan. The private onsen is beautiful(though a little bit hot be warned), the dinner we ordered was delicious. I am not a fan of Aida beef which we were served, but was worth a shot. The staff is kind and attentive, and the location is rural, I found it very peaceful. I recommend you to visit it if you are in the area.

The hotel is near the bus stop. It is quite old and not well maintenance. The Japanese staffs are OK and can communicate in English. The shower curtain is dirty and mold. Both indoor and outdoor private onsens' water is not clean and it is not really private as I can see the second floor for outside building. The public onsens are better. Dinner is OK, you can pay more 1,500 Yen for Hida beef or just select chicken or fish that already included in the package. Howevre, the breakfast is kind of vegetarian meal :( In summary, i think it is not worth traveling so long to just stay here.

The onsen and the room was nice and the breakfast was good. But the dinner was strange, the food was cooked pretty well, but the combinations of the ingredients were an odd choice in my opinion. We had pork with tomato sauce and they decided to put a ladyfinger on top of it. But the stay was nice 😁

There were 3 private onsen for the whole hotel which was more than enough to use privately. The food are nice! I recommend to add money n get the hida beef! It was really nice n the portion was alright worth the money! Enjoyed the stay very much

Traditional post and beam, construction, tatami, mat, rooms, futon and super clean. Food and service is spectacular. The different Onsen have different temperatures. If you like like high temperatures use private private outdoor. Men’s women’s outdoor are warm. (Building has a lot of fire safety features built in, fire doors etc that are well hidden) If you want to hike, walk south 540m there is closed road where you will find another road (on right by public log cabin) where you can take an amazing hike up the hill.

We had a nice experience at Kazeya. Stayed for one night. Rooms were clean and big. There was a big hole in my duvet but it didn’t bother me. Dinner was great and we ate it all up. Breakfast weren’t really in our taste but we tried everything and appreciated the Japanese experience. A nice place and staff is helpful and speak good English.

We had an amazing experience at Kazeya, the dinner was incredible - we had the beef - not only the food was delicious but the whole experience around it. Rooms are beautiful and quiet and the private onsen are a must! Both inside and outside are incredibly cute and peaceful

Incredible service! Great place in the middle of the mountains to explore the area, with good food and very very affordable prices. Our room had an onsen, but there are also private as well as public onsen both indoors and outdoors. Place is a bit old (has been around for a long time) but very clean! Also when we left our passports and money (more than 1k in usd) in the hotel and went to the next city, they helped us find it and mailed it to our hotel. Simply amazing service and hospitality!

We choose this Ryokan as our base to tour this area. Location is a bit far from takayama central, but close to ropeway and kamikochi if u drive. WiFi food onsen and staffs are awesome and excellent.

It's called ryokan, small hotel, traditonal japanese style. There are private and public onsen.

Very clean, friendly staff. A good place to experience traditional Japanese Hotels. The front desk staff speaks well in English.

Iw was great way how to experience Japanese ryokan with plenty of options for onsen! Plus the traditional breakfast and dinner. Everyone was welcoming and really helpful. They prepared gluten-free menu for me as well!

Quaint ryokan that makes an excellent base for mountain climbing from the Shinhotaka Ropeway. The staff are all lovely and friendly. The rooms were very spacious and clean, and the food was pretty good (but I like basically all types of traditional Japanese food). The main bath was spacious but waaayyyy too hot. I could only stay in for a few minutes before feeling faint. There are two private baths, though, and the outdoor one was AMAZING, and the temperature was more reasonable. You can relax while enjoying a view of the mountains, whereas in the main bath you can't see anything. There is no time limit on them either, you just go and see if the key is there and use it freely. The only real negative is that the futons are woefully thin and it took a long time to get to sleep because my back hurt. Also the jinbei style pajamas were pretty threadbare and smelled old. But for the price (Go To campaign) and location it was just right. Maybe bring your own pajamas and ask for an extra futon.

Awesome room, average onsen. Breakfast was bland and they enforced me to be vegetarian for some reason. Staff can't speak proper English, had some communication issues. Check in took almost one hour, even thought I was the second in line.

This place was great. A long trip to get there but definitely worth it. There's not much around it to see but the rooms were spacious, comfortable and warm. The staff were very welcoming and pretty much waited on us hand and foot. The onsens were beautiful. Good for a relaxing day or two to soak and rest. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the food, the place only provides breakfast (free) and dinner (must pay for). We brought noodle cups and some other foods with us and just ate these for lunch and dinner. The breakfast they provided? Well let's just say you need to be open to Japanese styles of food. The "American breakfast" was actually more like French. Chicken patte, grapes, breads among other things plus a bit of cereal. Very classy just not my kind of food.

The staff were extremely hospitable, we enjoyed every minute of our stay. Our dinner and breakfast were both amazing and the private baths were both great. Will definitely return next time we are in Japan!

Nice ryokan with good size rooms. The Onsen are great, including two privates bath that can be used without prior booking. The food was good but not memorable, they managed to prepare one vegetarian menu when asked a few days in advance which is quite rare and very much appreciated.

What a charming place! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at this gorgeous traditional ryokan. The setting is so tranquil and we soaked in the beautiful hot onsens - we were fortunate to have the lovely public outdoor pools all to ourselves. The staff are very friendly and explained everything to us in English when we arrived and before each meal they told us what all the dishes were. Amazing traditional meals, and beautifully presented. What an absolute privilege to stay here! 🥰