Katsuragi Hotel Kitanomaru
C · 6.5 / 10situational
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.
Scores
Food 4 / 5
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.
Bath
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 3.5 / 5
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 2 / 5
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.
Place 4 / 5
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.
Getting there
- Nagoya — ~1h10, 0 transfers (estimated). Tokaido Shinkansen Kodama Nagoya->Kakegawa ~40 min, then ~25 min by car.
- Tokyo — ~2h20, 0 transfers (estimated). Tokaido Shinkansen Kodama Tokyo->Kakegawa ~1h50, then ~25 min by car.