The Saihokukan Hotel

“Very old hotel, but good location”

Located at the bottom of Zenkoji temple mountain, this hotel provides old but quiet setting. Good to stay after a visit to the temple, and some shops, restaurants alongside the road to the Nagano station. Breakfast in the Japanese restaurant in the hotel provided a gorgeous breakfast plate with s... more

Located at the bottom of Zenkoji temple mountain, this hotel provides old but quiet setting. Good to stay after a visit to the temple, and some shops, restaurants alongside the road to the Nagano station. Breakfast in the Japanese restaurant in the hotel provided a gorgeous breakfast plate with several small dishes. One of the best Japanese breakfast ever.

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“LONG ESTABLISHED HOTEL”

This is a large luxury hotel where many big events are held. It was chosen by someone from Nagano for us. The Japanese breakfast is excellent. You can actually choose either Western or Japanese style. You may also choose to either sit in a table or inside the Tatami room area with sliding scr... more

This is a large luxury hotel where many big events are held. It was chosen by someone from Nagano for us. The Japanese breakfast is excellent. You can actually choose either Western or Japanese style. You may also choose to either sit in a table or inside the Tatami room area with sliding screens. I like the Japanese breakfast as I know I will never have it again. Although they may be similar everyday, it does have some variations. We were at this hotel for about 5 nights. This location is very quiet and has a view of the city from our room which is higher than the surrounding neighborhood. It is walking distance to the pretty and slightly hilly downtown area. The town is charming with old fashion street lights. It is also very close to the Japan Rail station - about a 7-10 minutes ride. The hotel has a shuttle that can take you outside the downtown area if you request. We did not know about it until local friend had arranged it. We were able to eat at a local crab place outside the main city (about 15 minutes away) and get picked up to return to the hotel. The hotel also has another restaurant that serves French type food. It is well prepared. The rooms are large enough with a couch and table sitting area plus a desk. There is WIFI in the room except our room's WIFI was having some problems so I had to get the password from our relatives from the other room to get our WIFI from our room to work. I don't know what the issue was. A few weddings are held there on weekends as we observed. This hotel is well known to the locals. I like it because although the amenities are western, I totally feel like I am not in the Western world. It is a quiet hotel.

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“Gracious Japanese Service”

This hotel - formerly a historical feature of Nagano city has signs of former opulence. The original facade has been covered but inside there are some original features visible. The foyer is charmingly decorated and there are reception area rooms, which I know are gorgeous and have all the elega... more

This hotel - formerly a historical feature of Nagano city has signs of former opulence. The original facade has been covered but inside there are some original features visible. The foyer is charmingly decorated and there are reception area rooms, which I know are gorgeous and have all the elegance of a bygone era - but unfortunately were not open for an inspection. I would have loved to have been given the opportunity to view them - perhaps I regret not asking for this - as I am sure the staff would have obliged. The hotel caters for mainly business people and local wedding receptions - most of the tourists to Nagano stay in the snowfields. However as a base for exploring Nagano, Matsumoto and the Snow Monkeys - this is an ideal place to stay for independent travellers. Actually we really enjoyed staying here for the peace and quiet the hotel provided. It felt comfortable and unpretentious. Location wise - the hotel is a short distance to the main shopping section of Nagano city (near Daimon and the Zenkoji Temple complex). I believe the distance would be no more than 500 metres (5 mins walk) and probably a kilometre or a 20 minute walk to the train station. Nagano has a small but quite lovely shopping and dining precinct (but not Gondo stay away) - and if you do visit Nagano you must go to the Fujiya Gohonjin restaurant (separate review is coming....) for a very special dining experience. If you don't at least go to their patisserie opposite. The restaurants at the hotel itself serve excellent food, nicely presented and the service provided was so gracious - it was top notch really. The restaurant surroundings are very pleasant too. We did not try the Champagne Bar or the Chinese restaurant - just SEIJI and the in-house Japanese restaurant - which featured Kimino clad waitresses and a lovely Japanese garden. The food here was fantastic - the sashimi was very fresh, melt in the mouth and looked great - I'll try to add another few photos soon. The price of food here is great value. For breakfast there is no buffet. Instead you are offered a choice of a western or Japanese breakfast. Fairly limited for some, probably. We stayed in the main building in a standard room. The room was quite spacious but requires its carpet to be replaced. Other than that, the room provided an outlook of a lovely garden where I assume weddings are held and also provided a lovely view of the mountains. The bedding was comfortable and I liked the availability of fresh air - the windows can be opened. The in-house TV guidance system explained the buttons for the TV remote control - which was better than the Shangri-La Hotel in Tokyo!. It would be an advantage for the hotel to consider English menus for its restaurants, however check-in and check-out was not an issue. I reserved via email but I also think reservation would be easier if the hotel considered using external agencies to attract non-Japanese customers. If reserving via email - keep your English simple. Our side trip to the Snow Monkeys was easy from Nagano city. Its a short and direct bus ride (40 minutes) from Nagano Station. Special thanks to Kyle and staff for making our stay a delight.

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