Yuyado Tokinoniwa

We are glad to stay here on March 2025 for our anniversary, we love this hotel so much. The staff are friendly and helpful, especially the young lady who named A.Shishikura. She and a bellboy brought us and all our luggages, handbags & backpacks to our room with her tiny body. She is so hardworking & polite. When we got into our room, the hotel prepared a gifts for our anniversary, it's so sweet. The room we booked was Japanese western room B with hot spring open air bath (with breakfasts & dinners), it costs Cad$9xx (2 nights) through Trip.com which is a great deal! We enjoyed our room hot spring open air bath and 3 private onsens in the hotel (no need for reservation), and the public onsens, the atmosphere are so relaxing. The hotel is large and well kept. The room is clean and large. The view and the food of the restaurant are beautiful. However, the food is not hot enough sometimes, but they are still good. The hotel has a free shuttle bus to bus terminal and Yubatake, it's quite convenient. Also, there is a free shuttle to Karuizawa once a day at 11:15a.m., but MUST make a reservation after booked this hotel, the seat are limited. We strongly recommend this hotel and we would definitely come again!!! * One disadvantage of this hotel is not enough yukatas 👘 , the self pick-up area is always empty.

This Ryokan was my first and my honeymoon destination along with my mother and my mother-in-law. We chose this ryokan specifically for its private onsen experience. The ryokan has 4 public onsen and 3 private onsen which is first come first served for up to 40 minutes per usage. Overall, the experience was very neat, all of the employees were polite and nice. We booked a deluxe room with its own bath. The plan we selected included breakfast and dinner which we were anticipating a lot. The food. It’s very focused on the local Japanese people and I felt like it was not really focused on the foreigners. I am a Korean myself and am used to more Japanese food than others, but still found it difficult. Also, there was a mistake in the kitchen for us, but the staff made it a rather more pleasant experience for us. The restaurant employee named Aso, the managers, and others helped out a lot and made sure everything is okay. Kusatsu is a difficult destination for foreign travelers due to its remote location. But the onsens at Tokinoniwa made the experience much worth it. However, the shuttle system could not fit the needs and the location of the ryokan is about 20 minutes away with much of it being inclines from Yubatake. Also, the food here may be a bit difficult to consume and enjoy. Do consider this in booking this hotel.

Would NOT recommend. Please be cautious about the food served at this hotel. We experienced food poisoning (stomach flu) after eating dinner at the hotel, with symptoms starting later that night — including severe stomach pain, nausea, and diarrhea. The hotel provided one packet of stomach medicine and took no responsibility for the situation. Although we hadn’t eaten anything outside the hotel that day, the staff denied any fault. The manager, in particular, was cold and dismissive. After checking out, we discovered other reviews describing the exact same issue — guests falling ill with vomiting and diarrhea after dining here. This appears to be a recurring problem.