Kinjohro

My stay at Kinjohro was the absolute highlight of my trip to Japan so far. I stayed there from September 5th until September 6th, 2024. It is a luxurious and long-established boutique hotel, centrally located between the Geisha district and Kanazawa Castle. As soon as you enter the door, you are taken on an incredible journey back in time to Japan's traditional hospitality culture. The employees wear kimonos. The common areas and rooms are extremely tastefully furnished with numerous traditional art treasures and tatami mats and provide traditional interior including the doors, windows etc. In my spacious room, I was offered matcha and various sweets as a welcome. There is a traditional bathtub, Bulgari toiletries and many inclusive drinks. Guests sleep on comfortable futon beds prepared for during dinner. Modern amenities (television, room cooler, etc.) are not missing. Breakfast and dinner are real feasts in private rooms with a view of the Japanese garden. I wore a provided yukata. There were 10 courses of local Kanazawa cuisine, and the visual and flavor quality, as well as the fanciness of the food, was fantastic. It is not surprising that the restaurant has received several awards from the Michelin Guide. Some of the staff speak English and they all go above and beyond in their efforts to provide an incomparable stay. They are all extremely friendly and helpful. I received several lovely gifts and was picked up and returned from my room door for dinner and breakfast. The employee accompanied me to the cab and waved at me while I was leaving. Overall, it was an absolutely unique experience from start to finish. I can recommend the Kinjohro 100% and would have loved to stay longer. I would like to say a big thank you to the great team!

There are only six rooms and each had a corresponding dining room on the ground floor. It was possible to walk around the ryokan without meeting another guest. This is a rare luxury. Breakfast and dinner was served in our red themed room with windows looking out into the garden. The dinner was superb with good quality food like seasonal female snow crab and Noto beef. It was possibly the best meal we have had in a ryokan. Breakfast was good but one must understand this was News Years Day 2025. There was a very nice mochi making ceremony in the car porch attended by all the staff and guests. This was a nice touch.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Kinjoro. The staff was friendly, the room with a garden view was very nice. We booked the room with breakfast and dinner included and found the food, as well as presentation and private dining room, excellent. Even though we heard other people in this ryokan, we did not encounter another guest during our stay. This ryokan is about a 7 minute taxi ride from Aomori station and within walking distance of Old Town.

The food was good, Ryokan was well kept and very clean and exclusive. My only disappointment was that it didn't have any hot spring bath, which was my fault as I didn't check probably before booking as I assumed all Ryokans in Japan has hot spring bath. Now I know it is not true that all Ryokans come with hot spring bath. Nonetheless, my stay at Kinjohro was pleasant and nice. Orh! just one comment, the wifi was rather weak and slow. This is only one issue I faced as I had to work on my laptop and it was a little frustrating when the internet was slow. Other than this, everything is perfect.

The meals and service was excellent. The staff was friendly. The multipurpose room was large and constantly being changed for our use. The quality of the dinner was exceptional and both the Asian and Western breakfasts were nice. Only later did we learn there were only 6 rooms and it seemed to thrive on meetings and lunch businesses to support the ryokan hotel.