Yoyokaku

Most important to me was the care and concern offered by staff as well as the owner to ensure I thoroughly enjoyed my stay. It is a beautiful and calming place with an exquisite garden. Dinner, served in my room, was lovely to look at as well as delicious.

Yoyokaku is a traditional and authentic ryokan that offers gorgeous, old-world architecture, comfortable rooms, fine kaiseki dining, a gorgeous garden and signature Japanese hospitality. In a way, it is sort of an extension of Karatsu by emitting a sense of history, tradition and culture that visitors to the area will definitely appreciate. While we do enjoy the traditional ryokan experience, we tend to shy away from them because of some of the compromises that typically accompany a stay in one of them, such as poor sound insulation (including creaky floors), the lack of heat insulation during the cold Winter months and slow internet speeds. If our stay at Yoyokaku is any indication, most of the shortcomings are nonexistent here, while all of the charming aspects of a traditional ryokan stay are in abundance here. First, the property itself. The architecture, decor, landscaping and furnishings are all otherworldly... each small step down one of the charming wooden corridors made us feel like we were slipping furthe back in time (at least to the Meiji era, if not earlier.) The subtle nuances are very difficult to explain in writing; thankfully, the Chairman (and the current owner's father), Akihito Okouchi was a wonderful host and walked us through the property, explaining many of the subtle aspects of the craftsmanship involved in the construction (and restoration) of the property, as well as some of the history behind Yoyokaku as well as Karatsu in general. He speaks pretty good English, by the way, which is partly why Yoyokaku is quite popular among foreign guests. The current Okami-san (the proprietress and the Chairman's daughter-in-law) was an English teacher prior to marrying into the family, so communication will definitely not be an issue should your Japanese skills not be up to snuff. The magnificent and immaculately maintained garden is dominated by old "Matsu" (Japanese Pine Trees), which really gives this ryokan a sense of place. As an aside, nearby Yoyokaku is one of the country's three most famous pine groves (called Niji no Matsubara.) There is a small gallery of Karatsu-Yaki pottery by famous local artisans that is on permanent display, and also available for purchase. This is another thing Karatsu is know for, and will provide you with a nice history lesson just by staying at Yoyokaku. We chose a room called "Tonbo" (十坊), room 211, which is a corner room on the ground floor with an awesome view of the garden. It's purely a Japanese room - no sofa, no sitting chairs, Western beds... the room is of the Tatami variety, and has a low table in the living room and you sit on the floor (albeit on Zabuton cushions.) After dinner, the staff will lay out the Futons; in our case, since the room had two sections, they laid out the Futons in the room adjacent to the living room, so there was no need to have the table dragged off to the side to make way for the Futons - I could continue working on my laptop (and all of the accompanying el