Omihachiman, Japan

Hatago Wakatsu

Price per night from$1,007.98

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (JPY157,300.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Hatago Wakatsu Photos

Style

Tatami tale

Setting

Lake Biwa periphery

Explore

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Sojourns at two-key Hatago Wakatsu feel like a guided meditation. Once a 200-year-old tatami shop, this introspective ryokan is an introduction to being in the moment, a skill you might hone in its herb-infused sauna, at slow-paced tea ceremonies or over intimate dinners at the super-local, seasonal restaurant. Practise analogue living in its screen-free suites with their soul-soothing views and Kyoto-sourced interiors. A sense of calm washes over this traditional Lake Biwa locale, and will soon over you, too.

Smith Extra

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A drink each at the restaurant

Facilities

Photos Hatago Wakatsu facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Two suites.

Check–Out

10am. If you’re staying in Ki-no-ma, check-in is 1pm; for Ishi-no-ma, it’s 3pm.

More details

Rates at Hatago Wakatsu include an Omi-style breakfast, served in your room.

Also

Unfortunately, this ryokan retreat is not suitable if you have reduced mobility.

Hotel closed

The hotel is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays.

At the hotel

Boutique, sauna and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: air-conditioning, tea-making kit, minibar, yukata kimono, slippers and organic bath products.

Our favourite rooms

There’s a frozen-in-time feel at Hatago Wakatsu — a consciously restored tatami shop with modern frills, where the only two suites are a love letter to local materials and craftsmanship. Garden-gazing Ishi-no-ma pays homage to Kyoto’s kurama stone with its impressive rock soaking tub, plus its lanterns are sourced from a workshop that’s been creating for 200 years. Spacious Ki-no-ma is inspired by the region’s wood, and its bath tub is made out of koya maki wood by one of the few remaining artisans who makes traditional soy sauce barrels. Its Japanese-style futon beds add to its authenticity, and breakfast is served in the suite’s second floor, with views over the Hachiman-bori Canal.

Packing tips

An open mind for this culturally immersive stay.

Also

The earthen-walled sauna is a warming retreat for medicinal-herb steams and its cold-water bath is a refreshing contrast. It’s available for exclusive use for one room each day, and can also be the setting for peaceful tea ceremonies.

Children

Welcome, but there’s no specific kit. Both rooms take a third guest on a single-size futon.

Sustainability efforts

Provenance is privileged at former tatami shop Hatago Wakatsu, where materials and makers are sourced close-to-home, and ingredients are hyper-local — the hotel has its own rice field; fresh vegetables and fish come from lakeside suppliers, and Omi beef is reared at a top sustainable ranch.

Food and Drink

Photos Hatago Wakatsu food and drink

Top Table

Tameru is an intimate dining experience with only an eight-seat counter.

Dress Code

To maintain the serene atmosphere at Tameru, you might be inclined to match its interior with soft hues and clean-cut tailoring.

Hotel restaurant

Tameru takes its culinary and creative cues from Lake Biwa and the surrounding mountains. Seasonal produce is paired with passed-down recipes and homegrown ingredients, and its taste-of-tradition meals typically centre around lake-caught fish, Omi beef (served straw-grilled or sukiyaki style) and the hotel’s own rice. Plus, sommeliers are on hand to suggest sake and wine pairings for the healthy-yet-nourishing plates. An Omi-style breakfast is included with your stay, and you might start your morning with an obanzai of pickled plums, seared fish and fluffy rice, served with tea.

Hotel bar

Starting — or ending — your day with a cuppa is an even more meditative experience at Café Sanzui, where you’re encouraged to come as you are and sip on carefully curated teas from Shiga farms. Its bar is an equally peaceful spot for a refreshment of something stronger.

Last orders

Breakfast is served at 7am, 8am or 9am in your room. Tameru serves dinner from 6pm; Café Sanzui serves from 1pm to 5pm, and the bar pours from 9pm to 11pm.

Room service

You can dine in your room on request. If you’re staying in Ki-no-ma, you’ll take breakfast in a private canal-facing space on the second floor.

Location

Photos Hatago Wakatsu location
Address
Hatago Wakatsu
Tamayacho ６
Omihachiman
523-0831
Japan

Hatago Wakatsu is set in canal-lined Omihachiman, a city in Shiga prefecture that’s set back from the shores of freshwater Lake Biwa and an hour away from Kyoto.

Planes

Your closest airports are in Osaka: Itami Airport is a 90-minute drive from the hotel; Kansai International Airport is closer to two and a half hours away by road. Staff can arrange transfers on request.

Trains

West Japan Railway routes from Osaka and Kyoto call at Omihachiman station, which is a 10-minute drive from the hotel.

Automobiles

The country’s impressive rail networks mean you’re more likely to zip around on trains between destinations, plus staff can arrange local excursions during your stay. Should you choose to drive, there are four free parking spots at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Like Hatago Wakatsu, this nature-rich region offers a privileged insight into local life. Your Omihachiman locale is home to the Himurehachimangu Shrine, the site of two annual fire festivals; the hilltop Azuchi Castle ruins that overlook Lake Biwa, and picturesque canals, along which you can take a boat cruise. The lake’s shores are home to shrine-dotted cities, such as Hikone City with its namesake castle, spring cherry blossom and ancient Taga Shrine; and Takashima City with its lake-floating torii, which you could paddleboard around, and colour-changing avenue of metasequoia trees.

Bucket-list Kyoto is just over an hour away by road or railway, or you could try your hand at spinning Shigaraki plates in a pottery class in kiln-famed Koka City; its Miho Museum, which was designed by Louvre-architect I M Pei, is worthy of a pitstop, too. Trips to forest- and temple-clad Chikubu Island are particularly spiritual, as is a serene tea or incense ceremony back at base.

Local restaurants

Open-kitchen Specialties Omi Beef Restaurant Tiffany serves typical set menus centred around its namesake high-quality meat, with melt-in-your-mouth steaks and miso bone broth. Classic cuts of beef and local dishes, such as shabu shabu and ishiyaki, are what polished Morishima Omihachiman Honten prides itself on. At owner-run Shinsengumi, seafood bowls and thickly cut sashimi are popular with residents and visitors alike. 

Local cafés

Lakefront Chalet Mizugahama delivers cakes, coffees and sandwiches, but the star of the show is its foliage-framed views of the water from its terrace. You’ll get your caffeine fix at Mysig Coffee Roaster, with its own blends and lightly roasted espresso.

Local bars

Set on the canal, Two Rabbits Brewing Beer House is a quaint spot for house stouts, sours and ales.

Reviews

Photos Hatago Wakatsu reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this intimate hotel in Japan and unpacked their tea kits and handmade ceramics, a full account of their culturally immersive break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Hatago Wakatsu in Omihachiman…

Tatami-shop-turned-ryokan Hatago Wakatsu is an immersion for all your senses. Heritage-nodding design, warm lantern lighting and view-revealing shoji doors make up its visual allure, along with bespoke kurama stone or k?yamaki wood bath tubs that are as striking as they are enticing.

Seasonally changing incense from perfumer Kan Izumi wafts through each curated corner of the hotel, and the exclusive-use sauna is scented with herbs. Tactility comes in the form of fluffy towels from centuries-old maker Roshichi and tatami mats that nod to the hotel’s past life.

At Tameru, nourishing menus of Omi beef, lake-sourced fish and homegrown rice spotlight fresh Kyoto flavours and ingredients. Its soundtrack follows the rest of the retreat’s less-is-more approach: instead of music you’ll hear laser-focused chefs chopping seasonal produce, owner Yoshida-san pouring tea in a ceremony, or the glug of sommelier-picked sake.

But the most notable sound of all will be your sigh of contentment as you revel in this thoughtful and traditional experience.

Book now

Price per night from $1,007.98

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