Yamagata Nanokamachi Washington Hotel

The hotel breakfast was good (mostly Japanese food) and there were plenty of choices of food, including the local imoni. They had quite a few choices of drinks for breakfast available too. We had breakfast for two days and there were a few differences in offerings on the second day, so it wasn't boring! I liked eating in the restaurant on the 9th floor too. When the Front Desk Clerk was checking me in, he asked for my passport, but knew that as a legal resident of Japan, I didn't have to show it or have it copied. He was also very friendly and helpful, with decent English. My husband enjoyed the public bath on the ground floor. There were some interesting restaurants in the area, including old-style Yatai stalls, a major Japanese coffee chain and a fast-food restaurant.

The hotel is quite old and in need of a refurbish and a thorough cleaning. The room that we received was very small and we weren't able to walk past each other. We had a few problems with the room too. The tiles were cracked on the floor of the bathroom and water leaked out from somewhere. I kept having to change my socks because I didn't notice in time. We returned to the room quite late one evening and my husband immediately went to the public bath. Our room had been cleaned and the bed remade during the time we were gone. While he was gone I noticed there was a bloodstain on the fresh pillowcase. The pillow was standing up so I have no idea how the maid missed it. To do the hotel staff credit, when my husband complained, a fresh pillow with pillowcase was brought to our room and exchanged for the not clean pillow. The phone cord on the phone in the bathroom was disgustingly dirty. It looked like it was mouldy. The hallway carpet outside the rooms was stained and looked like it desperately needed replacing.