Besshoonsen Nanjyo Ryokan in Ueda

My wife and I traveled to Bessho Onsen to wrap up our visit to Nagano, and we chose Nanjyo Ryokan as our place to stay. The bathhouses were clean and relaxing, the rooms were comfy and spacious, and the staff was beyond kind.

When we left the next day, I accidentally left my passport behind. The staff promptly contacted us to let us know, but we did not notice until after we already arrived at our next stop in Gifu. Needless to say, we thought our trip was ruined. We prepared to begin cancelling the rest of our plans to backtrack to Bessho Onsen, fully expecting to spend hundreds of dollars on travel and accommodations.

One of Nanjyo Ryokan's staff members, Takahashi, went out of his way to package and ship my passport out of Ueda the same day, and it arrived in our hotel in Takayama the very next day! We could not believe the efforts that they went through to save our trip.

We will never forget our visit to Bessho Onsen and the exemplary humanity on display from the staff at Nanjyo Ryokan!

Amazing hotel. Really peaceful and tranquil. Friendly staff. The onsen was relaxing.

I stayed at a nearby izakaya (Japanese-style bar) and didn't get a dinner plan, but I still felt that 10,000 yen was an incredible deal for this quality. The room, bath, and service were all perfect for a trip with friends.

Excellent place to stay. The water is 100% natural hot spring without circulation. The water is clear with sulfur smell. The food is served in a hall and tastes very good. Some rooms have private bathrooms with 100% natural hot spring. The staffs are really very nice.

We stayed a week at Nanjyo Ryokan and had a very pleasant stay in Bessho Onsen thanks in large part to Katsuki Ide, who helped us with our online reservation and made certain that we had a wonderful stay. Our Japanese style room was lovely: very spacious with a view of the (small) garden which you can visit on your way to the public baths. (Be sure to take advantage of the Shampoo Bar in the women’s bath.) The hotel is old and shows its age, but being aware of this beforehand we knew what to expect. There were marks and repairs on the walls, some strange heating pipes visible under the closet, not the cleanest floor to ceiling window, along with routine signs of wear; none of this was an issue and one might say it added to the charm. The many connected annexes and hallways meant that you could get lost trying to find your room if you don’t have a good sense of direction. The renovated lobby was comfortable, with books to browse and games to use, jazz playing during the day, and Charlie Chaplin silent movies at night (subtitles in Japanese plus background music). Coffee, tea and cocoa were available in the lobby all day with a wide selection of beautiful cups and saucers. We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here. We spent several days visiting the sites in Bessho Onsen. We also spent a morning at Shimonogo Ikushimatarushima Shrine which was very worthwhile. It is easily accessible by train or as one of your stops on the “Heritage Bus” which we took on another day. (¥500 each). We will definitely consider returning at some point for autumn foliage in Bessho Onsen.

We stayed here as a family of four. Our youngest child was only one year old, but there was body soap for children in the bath, which was nice. Personally, I was very excited about the shampoo bar. They also prepared things like yo-yo fishing and puzzle solving for the children's festival, which my older child seemed to enjoy. Although it was outside of opening hours, they also made shaved ice for us. We were very satisfied with the flexible and polite service. It is a historic inn, and it did feel old in places, but it was well-cleaned and we had a comfortable stay. Thank you very much.

Excellent place to stay in Bessho Onsen. My wife and I were traveling with our 18 month old child. We ended up here by complete accident having booked the wrong hotel. Despite a language barrier the staff was quick to set us up with a room for the night. The room was incredible with its own wooden tub with fresh onsen water. It also had a beautiful garden you could walk in. They provided us with comfortable yukatas and slippers. I can't thank them enough for taken us in and setting us up so comfortably despite no reservation. Also the kindest man drew a beautiful card with our daughter's name on it that we will cherish forever.

This is my first time staying at Bessho Onsen. The cherry blossoms were in full bloom. I arrived early and parked my car in the hotel's parking lot, and after sightseeing at Bessho Onsen, I checked in. When I checked in, they gave me a welcome drink (apple juice). The room was a Japanese-style room with a wide veranda and was old, but it was kept clean, just like the rest of the building. The bath smelled of sulfur, and hot spring water came out of the faucet. The open-air bath was lukewarm, and the indoor bath was hot. There was a shampoo bar, and lotions and other things were also available. There were also diapers and bath supplies for babies. There was mineral water at the bath, and you could drink it at the rest area. Jazz was playing in the rest area as well. In the morning, they were playing bossa nova (maybe Lisa Ono?). There was a single plum flower on display, and it was pretty and smelled good. Dinner was served at the venue, but there were partition blinds between each table, and the tables were far apart. The spring Shichikuri course was named after the Jizo statue in Bessho Onsen that is said to rid us of seven hardships. The menu consisted of seven dishes in a basket, Shinshu salmon and Iwana carpaccio, grilled Spanish mackerel with yuzuan sauce, and fried Sakukyu carp, all of which went well with the sake. I thought it was a light menu, but when I looked at the back of the menu, there was a greeting from the head chef, who said that "At our inn, we serve low-salt, low-carb, health-conscious dishes with the idea of ​​making your mind and body at ease." After eating meat and vegetables, the Shinshu beef hotpot was made into a risotto made by melting cheese in a Shinshu miso sauce and adding rice. My partner didn't really like the risotto. The risotto was quite rich in flavor, probably because it was boiled down. It was delicious when I ate it, but it made my stomach feel a little heavy afterwards, so I should have just eaten it as regular rice. But the combination of miso and cheese was certainly delicious. The light menu may be too light for young people, so perhaps there was a menu using cheese. Sake was priced from about 1200 yen per cup (1500 yen for 300cc). For breakfast, we had delicious rice porridge with a gentle flavor containing beans, soy milk hotpot with very large shimeji mushrooms and tofu vegetables, and tamagoyaki. The lobby lounge of the inn was renovated in 2019, and is a chic, modern, and very nice space. Jazz music is playing quietly. Coffee (instant from the machine during the day) and tea are free drinks and can be used at any time. After the bath, I went there to drink coffee and look at the many books. There were customers even though I was drinking local beer. After dinner, I was able to watch a "Chaplin silent film" (projected on the wall), and I watched it for a while while I was tipsy. The film was "City Lights," in which Chaplin plays a homeless man struggling for a blind flower girl. When I went there early in the morning, regular coffee was prepared. The bath was being used by about four generations of guests, so I went to the lounge first and had a coffee. Bach's music was soothing, and I looked at books about wine. I came back after dinner and read the newspaper, but this time I tried the decaffeinated coffee. The owner left a handwritten message with an illustration, and I received messages of gratitude from the staff, and I felt the kindness and attention to detail in every aspect of the inn. It was an inn where you could feel the warmth of their hearts.