Sekitei
C · 6.4 / 10situational
A 12-room garden ryokan in mainland Hatsukaichi near the Miyajima ferry, with a hypnotic garden and an oyster-and-conger-eel kaiseki. Japanese travelers adore it (4.81 on Ikyu), but KI-NRT gave it three stars, near the bottom of anything he reviews, for the aging, under-cleaned suite and the hassle of the self-fill tub, and he calls it a convenient overnight that is not a destination ryokan in its own right. Yet five years on he still sends Miyajima-bound travelers here and still praises the food and garden; it works as a single night if you choose your room carefully.
Scores
Food 4.5 / 5
Dinner is an extravagant full kaiseki of local Setouchi ingredients and wild mountain vegetables, served in the room in artisan ware: conger eel prepared masterfully several ways, oysters, mugwort tempura with mugwort-buckwheat soba. Breakfast in the main restaurant is a grand, creative spread. KI-NRT calls the meals exceptional, just outside his own top ten, and Japanese travelers count Sekitei among the country's ten culinary destinations.
Bath 4 / 5
The communal open-air onsen is the bath to use, and KI-NRT found it wonderful. Only some of the 12 rooms have onsen at all, and in Oimatsu the open-air tub is not free-flowing: you fill it yourself from a tap, which takes 20-plus minutes, then dilute it with cold non-onsen water to cool it, and he found dead skin in the bath after filling it. He does not recommend Sekitei if an in-room onsen is your main goal.
Service
Dinner is served in the room and breakfast in the main restaurant, and shoes are collected at reception when you arrive. KI-NRT told the staff about the dirty bath but does not say how they responded, and nobody in the thread has written about the service otherwise.
Room 2.5 / 5
All 12 rooms differ in space, layout, view and privacy, and the style is a mix of traditional Japanese and early-20th-century, so do your research in advance. KI-NRT's Oimatsu, a two-story suite with an open-air bath, was decent in size but chopped into too many little nooks and felt claustrophobic, aging and under-cleaned (dust, grime, dead skin in the tub), with no internet. The tatami floors were heated, a godsend in winter.
Place 4 / 5
Most of the rooms face the inner garden in a U-shape, and that garden, with its views of the Seto Inland Sea and Miyajima, is what Sekitei is famous for; KI-NRT found it hypnotic. Several detached rooms farther down the hill have better privacy but inferior views. The inn is in Hatsukaichi on the mainland near the Miyajima ferry, and he would still rather stay on Miyajima itself, since Sekitei is a convenient overnight and no destination ryokan.
Getting there
- Hiroshima — 0h40, 1 transfer. Reverse of: JR back to Hiroshima (~30 min).
- Kyoto — 2h25, 1 transfer. Shinkansen Kyoto→Hiroshima (~1h40), JR ~25 min toward Miyajimaguchi + short taxi.
- Fukuoka — 2h15, 1 transfer. Sanyo Shinkansen Nozomi Hakata→Hiroshima (~1h), change to the JR Sanyo Main Line→Ono-ura/Miyahama (~35–45 min), then a ~5-min inn shuttle/taxi (call ahead).
Sources
FlyerTalk review #1 · TripAdvisor 3★ (April 2021) · Ikyu 4.81 / 5 · #319 · #778 (thread mentions)