Bettei Senjyuan

Thoroughly enjoyed every part of the two nights we stayed here. Excellent service, great food, nice room, there was quite a bit of space in the ryokan and a lot of interesting places that we could wander around, indoors and outdoors. The staff are well trained and were very hospitable. Everyone worked together to provide great service, even the cleaning ladies were so lovely. We totally understood why it has been recommended by so many people as a truly great onsen ryokan.

My main complaint is that air conditioning was advertised on the hotel details, but not available. We sweated all through dinner and our sleep even with the sliding door wide open. We felt almost no relief for two days. How can you enjoy a hot spring when the indoors are even hotter? This was a real disappointment. Beautiful grounds. The private sauna in the forest is wonderful. Food was good, but we enjoyed the food much more at Beniya Mukayu during our stays there. Serious difficulties with an incorrect spa charge taking 30 minutes to resolve despite needing to check out and make a train on time was also very challenging. The poor taxi van driver waited 20 minutes and we waited 30 minutes for a simple correction. Not a good departure.

Tanigawa Onsen is a famous hot spring that has been flowing since the Edo period. This Japanese resort, with its eye-catching design that blends tradition and modernity, has 18 guest rooms in a 3300m2 building, all of which have an open-air bath. The surroundings are filled with natural beauty, including the magnificent view of Mt. Tanigawa and the murmuring of a mountain stream, and will help you blow away the fatigue of everyday life. There is also a large communal bath with a dry sauna and an open-air bath, so it is fun to take a bath around the facility. The mild alkaline water gently envelops the skin

We loved our stay here. Bettei Senjuan was established in 1997 as an annex of Ryokan Tanigawa in the Tanigawa Onsen area, and not far from the larger Minakami Onsen. Ryokan Tanigawa is a large, standard ryokan whereas Bettei Senjuan was created with luxury and bespoke experiences in mind. It has 18 rooms, and all of them have in-room onsen hot springs.||Despite the ryokan being 26 years old, it is very well maintained, and is stylishly constructed, adorned and furnished. The main corridor connecting the common area and the rooms have floor-to-ceiling glass windows on one side, allowing for incredible view of the Southern Alps range and the well manicured property grounds. The overall architecture is impressive - every wall, beam and counter has elaborate carvings or artwork on them. And in every nook and cranny, there are small but precious adornments, from a flower/vase to a traditional string instrument to a mini display of tress with colored maple leaves on the ground to signify the fall foliage season. You can spend many hours exploring the glorious attention to detail in every corner of Senjuan.||We booked the "Special Room SP" room category, which is the top suite in the ryokan. It has a living room, bedroom, a tea room, a (very) mini inner garden, an open-air bath with a view of the river, forest and the Alps, and is stylish beyond belief while still being traditional in general design and layout. Everything from the ceiling artwork and carvings to the decorations on the sliding doors have amazing detail, and really gives it a sense of place. One thing to note - this Suite is almost completely tatami-matted, meaning you sit on a floor (on top of a sitting pillow, mind you) and you'll sleep on futons rather than a Western style bed. If this isn't up your alley, I believe there are other room categories that offer more "foreigner-friendly" accommodations.||Bettei Senjuan takes care of every amenity you could ask for - their toiletries consist of Molton Brown and De Medici (never heard of the latter, however) branded items, and offer every item that anyone can possibly need when living in their own home. Additionally, there were two separate bathrooms and dual sinks/vanities, which Mrs. KI-NRT always appreciates.||The in-room, open-air Onsen bath gets its hot springs straight from the source, is continually free-flowing and never recirculated. That said, we found the temperature to be a bit on the lukewarm side - most Westerners prefer it that way, but I can't help but think that Japanese visitors (including ourselves) would prefer it to be a few degrees higher.||Although dining is not in-room, we had our meals served in a Koshitsu (private dining room), which was good enough for us. The kaiseki meal was definitely a highlight - it was 11 courses in total (which is typical of an elaborate luxury ryokan kaiseki meal) and many of the dishes focused on local ingredients, which is one of the reasons to visit ryokans in regional locations. That said, the most memorable offering was a savory, souffle-like custard with grilled Conger Eel, Red King Crab, Japanese Taro, Lily Bulb and Yuba (Tofu Skin.) Very original and simply sublime.||Bettei Senjuan offers a unique experience as an off-the-beaten path yet luxurious destination ryokan. While Japan is full of amazing ryokans and we still have many places we'd like to try out during our lifetime, if circumstances have us visiting the area in the future, we would not hesitate to stay here yet again.

This hot spring resort is a beautiful facility located on large, gorgeous grounds, less than two hours from Tokyo station. The Tanigawa mountain range mid-November offered a wonderful backdrop to our suite of three rooms including our private outdoor bath. We spent two days walking the grounds, enjoying the wonderful cuisine, taking numerous dips in our bath as well as experiencing dips in the the two larger communal baths. The service was impeccable, the refrigerator refilled regularly, and late night snacks delivered to our room both evenings. The facility is large but there are only about 16 suites so it feels very quiet and tranquil. Whether you are visiting Japan for the first time or are a frequent visitor to onsen resorts, you should consider staying at Bettei Senjuan. We think it is special.

My boyfriend came to Japan for the first time so we wanted to experience something special. And we really got a super special experience at Senjyuan! Not just our room but the whole facility is incredibly beautiful, the architecture is awing. We also took walks in the nature and went to Tanigawadake, so there are things to do outside of the Ryoukan, even though it’s rather remote. Every single staff member was very attentive - most of all we want to thank リリカさん, as she accompanied almost all of our meals. She was not only the sweetest, but also patient with my bad Japanese, so we could hold little conversations every day, which was so fun. We looked forward to seeing her every time. We loved waking up to the beautiful terrace and using the private onsen every day. There is also a little hut in the woods where you can read and where we spent half a day, drinking tea and looking out into the woods. The food was honestly perfect. We tried both the western and japanese breakfast and for the dinner we had 4 different menues for every single evening and all of them were not only beautifully arranged but gave us a culinary experience we never had before. And whenever we came back to our room, there would be new Japanese sweets, cut fruits or even midnight snacks prepared. There is so much more I could talk about. All in all the price is justified for this experience and we left very thankful and even sad, that we didn’t stay longer. Hopefully we will come back in the future! 皆んなさんありがとうございました。🤍

Favorite hotel in the world, and great value. Peaceful, beautiful facilities, wonderful staff, and exceptional service. The dining every night is a once in a lifetime experience, with every detail and local cuisine in a private area. Wonderful place and escape to rest and recharge.

Absolutely amazing! It's another level of luxurious stays. We never have quite the right word to describe this place, but it's exquisite, expensive, remote, and took us almost 3 hours to drive there from Tokyo. But all well worth it 👍 This place has it's own story to tell. The snow, the scent of the aging building, and the spring-water... The only downside bit is the food. Food ain't the best to be honest. But we will come back again for sure, just to enjoy the last snow of 2023 ❄️

This was an experience of a lifetime. My partner and I had been traveling over Japan from big city to big city it was nice to finally get away from the hustle and bustle of the city life. This was just the perfect place to get our escape, we went during November 2018 and got to see the fall colors in the vivid transition. With outstanding service on all levels from every staff member, you will find small delightful touches to make your stay truly extraordinary. You will never want to leave this beautiful place and it is a grounding stark contrast to that of the rest of Japan. I strongly recommend this hot spring for any time of year.

Bettei Senjyuan. Located in Minamimachi in Gunma prefecture. I stayed at this mountain resort in October, 2012. This was one of the larger resorts I've visited in terms of square footage. It included many facilities such as a nature trail, reading room, fireplace lounge, a hilltop lounge that included a bucket of complimentary Ramune soda, children's activity center, and a very nice este (spa). Although the area is expansive, there are not that many rooms at this resort, in order to preserve the private and exclusive feel. So you have to book well in advance to stay here. I had to get a room with a private bath so I stayed in the Yamabuki room. I got a very thorough massage at the este. They ask you to pick from several different fragrances. I wish I could have gotten another one. The meals were on point for something I would expect out of a place like this. In the public bath, there are cubbies that disinfect your slippers using UV light that you can use while you bathe in there. Very cool place. Overall though, for the money I paid, I thought the service was a bit behind the price point, which is why I gave it four stars instead of five.