We arrived in Hirosaki and we were recommended this ryokan by the tourist office at the main train station. We caught the local bus there without any problems. We were greeted by a man who spoke excellent English (the owner) and we were shown to our room by a pleasant older lady who spoke minimal english.

The room was quite large, and overlooked a lovely garden area. But there was a musty/stale smell throughout the whole place, and the room looked very tired and in need of a new coat of paint. The ensuite bathroom was also very tired looking and there was a stained fabric cover stuck onto the toilet seat - very strange!

We stayed for 2 nights, and had booked dinner with our room on our first night. The standard of the food that came out was below our expectations, and we thought it was poor value for what we were paying. We have stayed at many ryokans, and this was definitely the least appealing food we have ever been served in a ryokan style accomodation.

Location was good, a short walk to the castle grounds and main street nearby for shopping and wandering. We felt that this place had so much potential, but was just very "run down" and in need of some attention and some money to be spent on the place. We did not see any other guests while we were there. We have rated it high for service, as the people who worked there were very polite and very welcoming, and the owner also kindly drove us to the train station on the day of our departure

Stayed one night in Ishiba and I highly recommend it to others. If you are going to Hirosaki, this is the place to stay.

Room was very nice, and ours came with it's own bathroom which was welcome at that point in the trip. The bathroom wasn't particularly nice, but neither are most Ryokan bathrooms and those are shared.

Food was excellent, service was excellent. Strangely, they didn't offer to sell us beer or sake for drinking at dinner, but when I asked they sold us some.

The location is perfect for Hirosaki. Very centrally located.

The staff were super nice. The nice owner even drove us to the station after our stay. How wonderful.