Kinsuikan

Lovely typical Japanese Ryokan where you can experience wearing typical dress and taste local delicacies. Excellent location and great professional staff who cannot do enough to make your stay memorable.

Location on the water was perfect. Easy walk from/to the ferry. We had two luxury triple rooms (with private bathrooms) next to each other. Both had nice sitting areas (including a massage chair) with views of the water and the floating torii gate. Dinner served in the room was wonderful, and breakfast (served in the dining hall) was good, too. The futon was incredibly comfortable and there was a selection of pillows so you could choose what you liked. We spent 15 days in Japan and I had my best night's sleep here. Staff was very pleasant and helpful. We only only spent one night on Miyajima but we all felt we would have liked another day to see and do more. Another night at Kinsuikan would have been heaven.

The downside to the Japanese style rooms is that there's no place to lie down if you need to. Since we had just arrived in Japan the night before (from the US), we were still quite jet-lagged and after dinner all I wanted to do was go to bed but our futons hadn't been set up yet. If I had it to do over again I would still book a Japanese style room, but I might ask them to set up the futons sooner.