{
 "slug": "gora-karaku",
 "name": "Gora Karaku",
 "url": "https://ryokancatalog.com/inn/gora-karaku",
 "location": "Gora, Hakone",
 "prefecture": "Kanagawa",
 "region": "Kanto",
 "geo": {
  "lat": 35.2394,
  "lng": 139.0553
 },
 "tier": "D",
 "score": 4.5,
 "score_scale": "1-10",
 "unscored": false,
 "confidence": "low",
 "evidence": {
  "units": 1,
  "op_stays": 0,
  "member_stays": 1
 },
 "kinrt_rank_claim": null,
 "rooms": 70,
 "property_type": "Onsen ryokan",
 "style": "Large onsen hotel",
 "features": {
  "in_room_onsen": null,
  "meals_in_room": null
 },
 "summary": "A 70-room Orix-run onsen hotel in Gora that photographs like a modern ryokan but runs like a business hotel. stargold's one-night stay was not good, with dinner and its service the failure, and KI-NRT later told a poster weighing it to pass, even while granting it gets decent crowd reviews. stargold's group concluded that the Hotel Indigo, where they stayed the next night for half the cost, was a far better experience overall.",
 "aspect_scale": "1-5",
 "aspects": {
  "cuisine": {
   "label": "Food",
   "score": 2,
   "text": "Dinner was the absolute low point of stargold's stay, served in the restaurant with little privacy and no explanation of the courses beyond the scant description on the menu. The menu said the rice was cooked to order, but the pot was never presented and it did not taste freshly made, and he thought the food was ordinary at best and nowhere near ryokan standard. The paid upsells for the fish and meat courses felt like a cheap money-grab."
  },
  "onsen": {
   "label": "Bath",
   "score": 3.5,
   "text": "The rooms have their own outdoor onsen baths, and stargold found his pleasant, one of the few things in the room that worked. Nobody in the thread has written about the water itself or any other bathing here."
  },
  "service": {
   "label": "Service",
   "score": 2,
   "text": "Service at dinner was absolutely atrocious: inexperienced, inelegant and clumsy staff with no experience of a luxury setting. At one point the server dropped a plate of tsukemono onto the tray, put the pickles back with a fork and his fingers, and tried to serve it without seeing any need for a new one. stargold summed the place up as a typical Japanese hotel with none of the character, history and service levels you expect from a ryokan."
  },
  "room": {
   "label": "Room",
   "score": 3,
   "text": "The bed was comfortable, but otherwise the room was a slightly nicer version of the soulless dark grey wood decor you find in a typical modern business hotel. There are more than 70 rooms and they are basically identical, differing only by east wing (mountain views) or west wing."
  },
  "setting": {
   "label": "Place",
   "score": null,
   "text": "Gora Karaku is a large modern building in Gora, which has easy access to most of Hakone's sights, and its public areas have been done up to be very Instagrammable, with decent decor. The other choices in Gora are Gora Kadan, Gora Byakudan, Gen Hakone (opened 2021), Gora Hanaougi and Gora Hanaougi Madoka no Mori, and KI-NRT would pass on Karaku in favour of those."
  }
 },
 "transit": {
  "cities": [
   {
    "city": "Tokyo",
    "hours": 2.2,
    "time": "2h10",
    "transfers": 1,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Odawara Shinkansen + Hakone Tozan line/bus to Gora ~2h12."
   },
   {
    "city": "Kyoto",
    "hours": 2.25,
    "time": "2h15",
    "transfers": 1,
    "estimated": false,
    "text": "Tokaido Shinkansen to Odawara + Hakone Tozan line/bus to Gora ~2h15."
   }
  ],
  "note": "borrowed from builder"
 },
 "photos": [
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_gorakaraku-0-de3b8092.jpg",
   "tag": "bath",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_gorakaraku-1-a339de77.jpg",
   "tag": "room",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_gorakaraku-2-2397f202.jpg",
   "tag": "setting",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_gorakaraku-3-7bc9caea.jpg",
   "tag": "interior",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_gorakaraku-4-5c8823b5.jpg",
   "tag": "food",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  }
 ],
 "links": {
  "website": "https://gora-karaku.orixhotelsandresorts.com/",
  "map": "https://www.google.com/maps?cid=144625086118823111",
  "jp_site": {
   "source": "Ikyu",
   "score": 4.49,
   "reviews": 363,
   "url": "https://www.ikyu.com/00002805/review/",
   "as_of": "2026-07-18"
  },
  "flyertalk_reviews": [
   {
    "post": 437,
    "author": "stargold",
    "url": "https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36718825-post437.html"
   }
  ],
  "flyertalk_discussion": [
   {
    "post": 358,
    "author": "KI-NRT",
    "url": "https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36370441-post358.html"
   },
   {
    "post": 526,
    "author": "KI-NRT",
    "url": "https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/37014219-post526.html"
   }
  ],
  "tripadvisor": []
 },
 "as_of": "2026-09-07"
}