My husband and I stayed at Arashiyama Benkei ryokan for one night in April 2007 in a ten tatami mat room. We really treasured our brief experience here -- it was like stepping back in time to old world Japanese hospitality but with good heating and plumbing. We also had one of the best ryokan views in Arashiyama.

The staff was very friendly and at least a couple of them speak English. They spoke better English than the Western hotels that we also stayed at during our trip. This was a little bit important since my husband doesn't speak Japanese and I haven't studied Japanese in 14 years. We really appreciated that Mihoko-san translated the names of the wonderful kaiseki dishes for us.

When we were first walking from Arashiyama station to the ryokan, I was a little worried about finding the place even though I had printed out a map from their Web site. Thankfully, although their sign was in stylized Kanji, they very helpfully included the Hiragana equivalent next to it... more