[Japan/Nagasaki] Yukinoura Guest House Moritaya in Saikai [Winter]
Yukinoura Guest House Moritaya
A 90-year-old house nestling in a beautiful and quiet countryside surrounded by mountains and a river, where you can connect with the local people and culture.
HK$725 (JPY 13,800) for 1 night (double room),
HK$363 per person/night
👍 One-of-a-kind experience
You get to meet and know about the friendly local community. We had a really good time celebrating "Christmas' eve's eve" - feasting, chatting and singing all night.
👍 Environment
A traditional Japanese-style wooden house in a rural area surrounded by a river and mountains, where you could embrace nature and peacefulness.
👍 Cozy room
Loved the tatami and the comfy futon. The sliding glass door brought sunshine and a lovely view of red leaves in the morning.
A few small details I really appreciate are the humidifier (my nose was not dying the second day!) and plenty of charging ports. We didn't get to use the TV and air conditioner but they could be useful for a longer stay. This place is just a perfect combination of modern and tradition.
👍 Kitchen
Spacious, well-equipped kitchen. We were arriving late, so we did grocery shopping on the way and cook our dinner. There's even a portable gas stove for making shabu shabu!
I have 0 complaints about this place, just some factual downsides for a fair comparison:
👎Remote location
You need your own car or take a taxi to arrive. But this is also why it's such a unique, exclusive hidden gem!
👎No soundproof & blackout curtain
These are the flaws of the traditional architecture - there has to be give and take. The futon was extremely comfortable though, we slept like a baby once we passed out (but it was a bit difficult to fall asleep due to the noise).
Beautiful sunset on the way!
Turned out we were the only two guests for the night - so basically we had the shared toilet/bathroom to ourselves, lucky~
Shabu shabu with the local Saikai pork and Saga wagyu!
We bumped into a party of 3 locals for a cute celebration on 23rd December with a log cake. Happy to be able to make new friends with our broken Japanese - these are the moments I was super grateful for putting time/effort in picking up Japanese~ ⸜(*ˊᗜˋ*)⸝
We followed our new friends' recommendation to plan our trip the next day, which turned out to be amazing! One of them is the staff of Sound Shower Museum (which is already in my bucket list) - he was originally off the next day but willing to go to work just to provide English tour for us 🥹 Another very convincing recommendation came from a big fan of Lemurs in the Nagasaki Bio Park who will visit the park EVERY SINGLE DAY - we did bumped into her the next day hahaha.
Dessert paired with some whiskey :D
I only realised how beautiful the place is the next morning. You got woken up naturally by the sunlight and the gorgeous view (red leaves at the end of December!).
And it was just WOW when I stepped out of the bedroom. The sun lit up the place so brightly which made the place seem so different from the night.
Another moment of WOW when we stepped out of the house. So sunny and beautiful.
It's a riverside house. Heard that there was a live band performance/music festival on this riverbank during the summer - another reason to come back!
There's a garden patio where you can sit down enjoying the sun, but we are Asians so we retreated back to the shade very quickly XD
The friendly hostess made us coffee in cute little porcelain cups with "Saikai" the city name written. It just felt so cozy resting here - the perfect place to just space out and do nothing.
It's fun to just observe around too. Other than tasteful furniture, we also found an interesting collection of antiques, enormous speakers and sorts.
The view from walking out the entrance is just picturesque.
The hostess is very cheerful, energetic and friendly. She kindly offered to take many photos for us when escorting us out.
There were a few booklets at the entrance and I grabbed a map that introduces the surroundings - it seems like Yukinoura is a popular spot for Summer activities!
One of the old ladies who came in the morning (I guess this guest house is actually a local community centre) surprised us by gifting us a super cute handcrafted wooden Christmas owl before we left. The best souvenir ever.🥹
📍Here's the official website of the guest house:
https://yukinoura.net/yukinoura_en/moritaya/
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