{
 "slug": "katsuragi-hotel-kitanomaru",
 "name": "Katsuragi Hotel Kitanomaru",
 "url": "https://ryokancatalog.com/inn/katsuragi-hotel-kitanomaru",
 "location": "Fukuroi",
 "prefecture": "Shizuoka",
 "region": "Chubu",
 "geo": {
  "lat": 34.75,
  "lng": 137.9333
 },
 "tier": "C",
 "score": 6.5,
 "score_scale": "1-10",
 "unscored": false,
 "confidence": "low",
 "evidence": {
  "units": 2,
  "op_stays": 1,
  "member_stays": 0
 },
 "kinrt_rank_claim": null,
 "rooms": 49,
 "property_type": "Onsen ryokan",
 "style": "Kaiseki (standout)",
 "features": {
  "in_room_onsen": "—",
  "meals_in_room": "Restaurant"
 },
 "summary": "Katsuragi Hotel Kitanomaru is a Yamaha-founded forest hotel of the 'local luxury' school, with a great garden, a classic piano and a fusion kaiseki kitchen (a standout Omi beef course and dessert among the courses) that carried the stay. The rooms are where it falls down, since KI-NRT's booked 28-square-meter room was cramped and, at over $500 per person, poor value; most of the inventory runs small, and he says the place needs suites. He calls it worth trying once, and only once, unless a suite is available.",
 "aspect_scale": "1-5",
 "aspects": {
  "cuisine": {
   "label": "Food",
   "score": 4,
   "text": "Dinner was the highlight: unique, creative fusion Japanese, with small dishes such as muscat grape, Japanese turnip with mashed tofu, and crown daisy with chestnut, a combination that sounds weird but worked. The softshell turtle soup was a delight, the Omi beef steak lived up to its billing (KI-NRT puts it with the best from Kobe, Tajima and Hida), and of the four excellent desserts the Satsuma sweet potato ice cream blew him away."
  },
  "onsen": {
   "label": "Bath",
   "score": null,
   "text": "Nobody in the thread has written about the baths here; the only bathing KI-NRT describes is the combined shower and tub unit in his 28m² room."
  },
  "service": {
   "label": "Service",
   "score": 3.5,
   "text": "Service was friendly and attentive, a little on the formal side in the old-school Japanese way, and everyone worked to cater to KI-NRT's needs with quiet efficiency. Katsuragi is a large property, much bigger than a family-run ryokan, so the slightly impersonal feel is no surprise. It caters mainly to a domestic, local Aichi clientele (golfers included), so English-speaking staff may be hard to find, though he couldn't confirm that."
  },
  "room": {
   "label": "Room",
   "score": 2,
   "text": "KI-NRT booked the Deluxe Western-style Twin, Fuji-dono, 28m², and even knowing the size he was unpleasantly surprised at how claustrophobic and unappealing it was, with small windows and a combined shower and tub unit unbefitting a luxury property at these rates. Higher categories exist but are a small share of the rooms, so good luck finding one on your dates. He would halve the room count by combining adjacent rooms into suites."
  },
  "setting": {
   "label": "Place",
   "score": 4,
   "text": "The grounds are the best part of Katsuragi: expansive, immaculately maintained and remarkably quaint, with beautiful gardens and surrounding forest you can easily spend over an hour strolling, which KI-NRT recommends. The entrance is traditional Japanese in a good way, and the lobby's floor-to-ceiling windows give commanding views over the garden, which makes the tiny rooms all the more jarring. It is a Yamaha-founded hotel in a forest in Aichi."
  }
 },
 "transit": {
  "cities": [
   {
    "city": "Nagoya",
    "hours": 1.2,
    "time": "~1h10",
    "transfers": 0,
    "estimated": true,
    "text": "Tokaido Shinkansen Kodama Nagoya->Kakegawa ~40 min, then ~25 min by car."
   },
   {
    "city": "Tokyo",
    "hours": 2.3,
    "time": "~2h20",
    "transfers": 0,
    "estimated": true,
    "text": "Tokaido Shinkansen Kodama Tokyo->Kakegawa ~1h50, then ~25 min by car."
   }
  ],
  "note": ""
 },
 "photos": [
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_katsuragihotelkitanomaru-0-d7fd4ee6.jpg",
   "tag": "bath",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_katsuragihotelkitanomaru-1-4ea8a52d.jpg",
   "tag": "setting",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 400
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_katsuragihotelkitanomaru-2-f308d990.jpg",
   "tag": "room",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 300
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_katsuragihotelkitanomaru-3-fdaae935.jpg",
   "tag": "interior",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 246
  },
  {
   "url": "/img/nc_katsuragihotelkitanomaru-4-0066af7e.jpg",
   "tag": "food",
   "width": 400,
   "height": 283
  }
 ],
 "links": {
  "website": "https://www.yamaharesort.co.jp/katsuragi-kitanomaru/en/",
  "map": "https://www.google.com/maps?cid=7928531789188334601",
  "jp_site": null,
  "flyertalk_reviews": [],
  "flyertalk_discussion": [],
  "tripadvisor": [
   {
    "rating": 2,
    "stay": "October 2020",
    "url": "https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g780858-d1098276-r782997347-KATSURAGI_Hotel_Kitanomaru-Fukuroi_Shizuoka_Prefecture_Tokai_Chubu.html"
   }
  ]
 },
 "as_of": "2026-09-07"
}