Hoshino Resorts Kai Enshu

Food is good, and tea experience is nice! All staffs are welcoming and kind. Got an umbrella as gift in heavy rainy day, thx KAI~

Stayed 3 nights at Kai Enshu. The hotel is just located opposite the Lake Hamanako. Our Onsen Suite is located on the 7th Floor, overlooking the beautiful lake from dawn to dusk. It is also within walking distance to The Lake Cruise departure point and the Cable Car (Ropeway) Station. Nearby, there are also Seven Eleven and Family Mart Convenient Store. If you wish to walk to Kanzanji small little town, it is about 15 mins walk away. Please note the town is pretty quiet during weekday and most of the shops are not open. Our suite is immaculately appointment and it comes with Private Onsen. Though the price is high but it is worth it to book this room category. We booked the Half Board plan (Breakfast and Kaiseki Dinner). They only offered Japanese Breakfast, and no other choices unlike other Kai or Hoshinoya, they do have Western Options. The serving is extremely small, if you are a big eater, this is not for you. Same goes to the dinner, the Kaiseki though it is beautiful and colourful, prepared carefully by the chef using freshly local produce, but in our opinion, the portion has to be right. It is way too small for westerners or Asian who eats regularly. Upon arrival, the staff didn't inform us when the Ropeway and Lake Cruise will be closed, as these are the 2 major attractions they should inform all their clients so they can plan their days. When we were there, the Ropeway was closed for 2 days, and the Cruise, not operating on certain days.  For the breakfast and dinner, most of the dishes are seafood or fishes. We are not very comfortable in eating fish with lots of bones, in our opinion, there should be options as well but there was none. The Tea Brewing ceremony was done in Japanese and we don't understand a bit, more effort should be done to cater to the English speaking audience. The socks provided in the suite was not as comfortable as Kai Yufuin which the quality is better, and it also has the anti slip stud. Please standardized the offering. At the Tea House, there were only 2 types of Cold tea provided where they have 6 dispensers but the tea offered were repetitive for the 3 nights we stayed there, we do not understand the approach. It is a nice resort but there are rooms for improvement.