Meihodo Manor

自然豊かで清潔　快適でした。スタッフの対応、案内も素晴らしかったです。ありがとうございました。

貴重品入れが欲しかったです。

We loved the secluded authenticity of Meihodo Manor. It’s a peaceful, restorative experience rather than a place to stay. The accommodation is like nothing we’ve experienced. It felt like we took a step back in time. There are many activities you can opt into and we appreciated the lack of pressure to upsell. We chose the samurai swordsmanship session and were blown away by the stunning dojo / outdoor setting and expert teachers. They navigated the nerves and abilities of our family (including a 12 and 14 years old) with kindness and accessible explanations. It was an amazing experience we’ll always remember. Everyone was so helpful, including coming to our rescue with jump leads when our car wouldn’t start. Can’t recommend highly enough to anyone looking to create a special moment for their trip to Japan.

We didn’t have dinner here and if you’re planning not to, I’d recommend bringing food and snacks as the kitchens are basic and nearby restaurants aren’t open late or consistently.

On touche à l’excellence. De la prise en charge au dépôt à la gare d’Aso nous avons été accueilli avec attention et chaleur. Ce n’est pas un établissement mais une expérience immersive dans la culture japonaise. Tout le personnel est près à vous faire découvrir sa passion pour les différents arts pratiqués à Meihodo. La sérénité est le mot qui nous vient à l’esprit, nous sommes encore sous le charme des extérieures et notre chambre qui embaumait l’inoki . Merci à Mat pour la leçon de Kyodo , pour sa patience et sa passion transmise.

Rien

I’m struggling a little with reviewing this resort as the people were nice, but it did not come across as a well ran place. It was not what we were expecting, we were originally considering leaving, but in the end, it mostly won us over. First off, as is in the name, this is a resort that is trying to do more than just be a place to lay your head. It wants to be a cultural center, where you go to immerse yourself into Japanese culture. It had a number of activities, and in some ways, it was like an adult day camp. And this might be where it has an identity crisis or, may clash with what you are expecting. For us, we had a car, and we were not in Aso to stay on a resort, but rather explore the 1000 things that are in the area. And the Aso area was one of our favorites in our visit to Japan for the reason it is less busy and less touristy. Our initial impressions were not great. To get to it, you drive up towards an industrial area (well, one large building I think), then follow what is a little more than a small rotting paved road through an unlit forest, with little or no signage to let you know you are going to a resort. As you get closer, it looks like someone is planning on building some homes in a small clearing, ruining the feeling that you going to an enclave (may be built by the time you read this). Eventually, you roll into the compound, a cluster of authentic old-style buildings. But for us, it seemed kind of deserted. No one around. I don’t even recall seeing any major signage that said this was Meihodo. We did find the “reception” building, but when we walked in, there was no one there. What we saw was a cluttered reception area with knickknacks, and a small dining area where they did breakfast. Neither seemed very welcoming, in particular, the lack of people. Considering how expensive the stay was, we were very worried that we had signed up for a zombie hotel.

I guess it was at this point where our opinion started to change on the place. The interesting wooden tub/shower with lots of hot water, falling asleep to the amazing rural tree frogs/crickets, some really nice and personable staff, and an amazing Kaiseki dinner in their historic dining building (not the breakfast area). And while the cabin still had all of the failings I note above, we started to warm to it. Feeling like we were getting a different experience and had our own little home. When we checked out, we noticed that they had charged us more (a lot more) for the Kaiseki dinner, and had to wait for someone to come sort that out (I had to pull up an email in which they offered us the dinner at a certain price as proof). We also noticed that booking.com (who was horrible on this booking) had charged us a city tax that as far as we could tell, was not actually there. The staff offered to help us with this, and to their credit, did help us with by communicating with booking.com confirming that there was no city tax in Aso (although they did not seem sure when we were checking out). I had also asked them to help with a booking.com price match which they did not help us with.