{
 "slug": "ancient-hotel-asama-karuizawa",
 "name": "Ancient Hotel Asama Karuizawa",
 "url": "https://ryokancatalog.com/inn/ancient-hotel-asama-karuizawa",
 "location": "Nagakura, Karuizawa",
 "prefecture": "Nagano",
 "region": "Chubu",
 "geo": {
  "lat": 36.3333,
  "lng": 138.5833
 },
 "tier": "—",
 "score": null,
 "score_scale": "1-10",
 "unscored": true,
 "confidence": null,
 "evidence": {
  "units": null,
  "op_stays": null,
  "member_stays": null
 },
 "kinrt_rank_claim": null,
 "rooms": null,
 "property_type": null,
 "style": null,
 "features": {
  "in_room_onsen": null,
  "meals_in_room": null
 },
 "summary": "Ancient Hotel Asama is a 13-room design boutique in the Karuizawa woods with jewel-box rooms and pleasant local cooking, and at $400–650 a night it sits well below what its peers charge. Ikyu guests adore it, marking it 4.9 across 41 stays and praising warm, attentive staff, with only minor gripes breaking the consensus. KI-NRT has 'yet to find a Karuizawa stay worth its salt', and this is the affordable design pick more than a connoisseur's destination.",
 "aspect_scale": "1-5",
 "aspects": {
  "cuisine": {
   "label": "Food",
   "score": null,
   "text": "Dinner is a creative kaiseki on local, seasonal ingredients, comfortable cooking and no destination kitchen, and breakfast gets as much praise as dinner in the reviews. Draft beer flows free with the stay, with no time limit, and the guests who come back or say they want to name the food alongside the staff as the reason. Ikyu guests put the food at 4.88, level with the rooms and just behind the service."
  },
  "onsen": {
   "label": "Bath",
   "score": null,
   "text": "Bathing is an indoor mineral hot-spring bath plus a private family bath that you reserve, and there is no in-room onsen, so the private slot is the route for anyone with tattoos. It shares Karuizawa's usual caveat of imported onsen water. Ikyu guests put the bath at 4.88."
  },
  "service": {
   "label": "Service",
   "score": null,
   "text": "Service is the strongest part of this inn, and the hotel sends a free car to Karuizawa Station. Ikyu guests describe warm, at-home hospitality, with staff who arrange surprises for birthdays and Christmas down to the detail, greet repeat guests like family and look after small practical things in the mountain weather, from warming shoes on a snowy morning to lending boots for the waterfall walk. They put service at 4.95."
  },
  "room": {
   "label": "Room",
   "score": null,
   "text": "There are thirteen rooms, each named for a natural stone and done in jewel tones, and one suite has a rotating central fireplace. Guests describe them as comfortable, with a balcony, though there is no shower in the room and no TV. Ikyu guests put the rooms at 4.88."
  },
  "setting": {
   "label": "Place",
   "score": null,
   "text": "The hotel sits in the Karuizawa woods at Nagakura, and TripAdvisor ranks it first of 53 places to stay in town. It is easy to reach, but it shares Karuizawa's light snow and near-Tokyo resort character, so there is no deep-country atmosphere. Guests praise the location, and the inn lends boots and bear bells for the walk to the waterfall nearby."
  }
 },
 "transit": {
  "cities": [
   {
    "city": "Tokyo",
    "hours": 1.6,
    "time": "1h35",
    "transfers": 0,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Hokuriku Shinkansen 'Asama' Tokyo→Karuizawa (~1h06–1h16), then ~15 min by taxi (free hotel pickup) — the easiest access on the whole corridor. For the Hiramatsu (Miyota), ride one stop on to Sakudaira + a ~20-min taxi (~1.9h total)."
   },
   {
    "city": "Kanazawa",
    "hours": 2.2,
    "time": "2h10",
    "transfers": 1,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Hokuriku Shinkansen 'Hakutaka' Kanazawa→Karuizawa direct (~1h50; the faster 'Kagayaki' skips Karuizawa), then ~15 min by taxi. The Hiramatsu adds ~15–20 min to Miyota via Sakudaira (~2.4h)."
   }
  ],
  "note": ""
 },
 "photos": [
  {
   "url": "/img/ancientasama-0-5be125c1.jpg",
   "tag": "room",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 266
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/ancientasama-1-86d585c1.jpg",
   "tag": "setting",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/ancientasama-2-6ca9e259.jpg",
   "tag": "bath",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/ancientasama-3-83db6777.jpg",
   "tag": "setting",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/ancientasama-4-d6c56c6f.jpg",
   "tag": "interior",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  }
 ],
 "links": {
  "website": "https://www.ancient-hotel.com/",
  "map": "https://www.google.com/maps?cid=18343963053582805758",
  "jp_site": {
   "source": "Ikyu",
   "score": 4.9,
   "reviews": 41,
   "url": "https://www.ikyu.com/00002705/review/",
   "as_of": "2026-07-11"
  },
  "flyertalk_reviews": [],
  "flyertalk_discussion": [],
  "tripadvisor": []
 },
 "as_of": "2026-09-07"
}