Norikura Ikkyu in Takayama

After checking in, I relaxed in my room until dinner, then headed to the dining area at 7pm.
I sat in a tatami room by the hearth and quenched my thirst with a draft beer before starting dinner.

Let's get started.

Dinner
The meal consisted of Hida beef shabu-shabu, three kinds of sashimi, chawanmushi (savory egg custard), simmered dishes, cold soba noodles, rice, and more.
The shabu-shabu was soft and had just the right amount of fat, and was delicious with the sesame sauce and ponzu sauce.
The sashimi was a three-piece platter of yellowtail, salmon, and squid, and was chewy and sweet.
The piping hot chawanmushi had a smooth texture with just the right amount of saltiness, and the simmered dish was well-seasoned and delicious.
The cold soba noodles I had to finish off my drinking session were boiled a little firm and had a smooth texture that went down smoothly, which was great.

Breakfast: Hoba Miso-yaki (grilled hoba leaves with miso), fried egg, kamaboko (fish cake), wild vegetables, seaweed, rice, miso soup, pickles, and more.
The piping hot Hoba Miso-yaki (grilled hoba leaves with miso), a Gifu specialty, was seasoned with a strong saltiness that went perfectly with rice.
The fried egg was soft-boiled and accompanied by side dishes like kamaboko and wild vegetables, and I ordered extra rice.

Thank you for the meal.
For dinner, the Hida beef shabu-shabu was delicious, with the tender, sweet meat complemented by the dipping sauce.
In contrast to dinner, breakfast was a bit simple, but the local Hoba Miso-yaki dish was excellent.
I enjoyed lively conversation with the waitress during the meal and a relaxing, enjoyable meal.

It’s ok but has a few drawbacks that would make me hesitate to recommend it.

The staff are very friendly and welcoming but speak little English so communication is sometimes difficult if you don’t speak Japanese. We found the beds really hard and a bit spartan and sheets are thin so we had a few nights of restless sleep. You can’t move the single beds together, so my partner and I slept in separate single beds. No coffee / kettle but a thermos of hot water and green tea are provided. The onsen is nice, but I found the lack of your own shower an inconvenience - you have to wash in the public onsen showers. If I’d known the showers were not private I’d have probably booked elsewhere for this price. However I really liked how the outdoor onsen opens onto the forest. I imagine if would be pretty in winter when there is snow.

BIG NOTE - The hotel DOES NOT ACCEPT CREDIT CARDS and there’s no ATM in town. The nearest ATM is 20 minutes’ bus ride away (and busses run only every hour). We overlooked this when booking and this surprise kind of ruined our day and soured the rest of our stay here. It was an imposition particularly as the hotel isn’t cheap and it doesn’t feel like a lot to ask to accept cards for travellers. We’d have been happy to pay the extra 5% fees etc.

Overall, as other reviewers have said, it is nice, the staff are welcoming and has lovely art in the hallways. However, for us some of these things would mean we would not rebook, although we are grateful to have been welcomed here.