Amanojyaku
unscored · Ikyu 4.8 / 5no first-hand write-up in the thread
A small suite ryokan on Maejima in the Amakusa archipelago, built around in-room onsen baths behind motorized window-walls that open the whole room to the sea. Ikyu guests put it at 4.78 across roughly 170 stays and single out the rooms and the bathing as its strongest points, but the dissent is consistent: dinner is their lowest mark, and recent reviewers describe an over-worked kitchen. Nobody in the thread has stayed yet, though KI-NRT had booked the top suite for December 2025 before Tayuta lured him away.
Scores
Food
Dinner is a sushi-centred omakase of about twelve courses from a Ginza-trained chef at a ten-seat counter that takes only about five groups a night, so ask for it on your first night. Amakusa's purple sea urchin is famous. Food is nonetheless the lowest Ikyu mark (4.64), and the recurring complaint in recent reviews is a kitchen that over-works its ingredients and a breakfast below the class of the inn, with portions running light.
Bath
Every room has an onsen bath, which KI-NRT calls a huge advantage over the sister inn Tenku no Fune, with water straight from the source. In the Junior Suites the bath is indoors behind a motorized window-wall: closed, it is a hot indoor bath with the whole sea view, and opened fully it is a semi-open-air soak. The top suites add a terrace rotenburo, a sauna and a cold plunge. Ikyu guests put the bathing at 4.84, just behind the rooms.
Service
Nobody in the thread has stayed here, though KI-NRT found the service first-rate at Amakusa Tenku no Fune, the older sister inn under the same owners. Free pickup is from Matsushima Port or the bus stop only, with no airport pickup, and cancellation penalties start 61 days out. Ikyu guests put service at 4.81, close behind the rooms and the bath, and recent complaints are about the food, none of them touching the staff.
Room
The Junior Suites run 78 square metres plus a 26 square metre terrace, with the onsen bath at the window; the top suites reach 115 square metres with a terrace rotenburo, sauna and plunge. Rooms draw the highest Ikyu mark (4.87), and the space of the suites, with glass walls that retract fully toward the sea, is what their reviews praise.
Place
Amanojyaku stands on Maejima in the Amakusa archipelago, and everything faces the water. KI-NRT calls Amakusa breathtakingly scenic, more beautiful even than Matsushima, with small islands dotting the bay, and the sushi counter hangs over an infinity basin with the early-January sun setting around 5:25 in view. The one car-free excursion is the dolphin-watching boats two minutes away, and Amakusa is a remote place to reach.
Getting there
- Fukuoka — 1h55, 1 transfer. Reverse of: Inn-arranged car Tayuta→JR Kumamoto ~1h (per Tayuta's own access chart) via the Five Bridges + Misumi — coastal, snow-proof — then Kyushu Shinkansen 'Sakura'/'Mizuho' Kumamoto→Hakata (~33 min, every 20-30 min). Rail alt: 20-min taxi/boat→Misumi + JR Misumi line 50 min→Kumamoto (+1 change).
- Kagoshima — 2h20, 1 transfer. Kyushu Shinkansen 'Sakura' Kagoshima-Chūō→Kumamoto (~48 min), change to the JR Misumi line (~50 min — ⚠ 14-18/day, plan the connection), then the 20-min taxi/boat Misumi→Tayuta (the inn's own access chart; inn-synced Takarajima boat where sailing — Iruka 1/2 suspended Dec–Mar, 3-5 sailings remain). Carless, coastal, snow-proof.
- Nagasaki — 3h25, 3 transfers. Reverse of: Carless via the Misumi corridor: inn-synced 15–20-min boat/taxi to Misumi, Misumi Line→Kumamoto (~50–60 min), then Shinkansen→Shin-Tosu + Relay Kamome→Kamome to Nagasaki (~2h) — all-rail, snow-proof. Drivers' variant (the ferry drive): ~45 min to Oniike Port, Shimatetsu car ferry→Kuchinotsu (30 min, ~every 45), then ~1h45 down the Shimabara peninsula with Sakitsu Church and the Unzen jigoku en route (~3.5h; winter gales occasionally cancel the strait ferry).
- Kumamoto — 1h10, 0 transfers. Reverse of: By car ~1h10 via the Five Bridges, Misumi and R57 — coastal and effectively snow-proof. Carless parity (~1¼h): 15-min Takarajima-Line boat Matsushima Port⇄Misumi port (+2-min walk to the station) or 20-min taxi, then Misumi Line⇄Kumamoto ~50–60 min — both Tayuta and Amanojyaku sync pickups. ('Amakusa-gō' rapid bus Matsushima→Sakuramachi BT ~1h20, ~9/day, no reservation.)
- Tokyo — 5h, 1 transfer. No Tokyo→Amakusa flight exists. Fly via Kumamoto: Tokyo→Haneda (~30 min), HND→Aso-Kumamoto (KMJ) ~2h, then ~1.5h taxi/arranged car SW across the Amakusa bridges to Matsushima — Tayuta's official access figure; the inns arrange transfers. Rail-purist alt: KMJ limousine bus→Kumamoto Stn (~1h) + Misumi Line (~50 min) + 15–20-min boat/taxi ≈ same door-to-door. (Connecting via Fukuoka to tiny Amakusa Airport works too but isn't faster.)