We were like most people - why stay at such a backwater location with not much around to see? In our case, we had a car, intended to hike around the Goshikinuma Ponds area (and Mt. Bandai in general) and it was perfectly located to break up our Tohoku driving trip. Not to mention, Atamiso has a stellar reputation among Japanese "in-the-know," especially for its kaiseki cuisine.
The ryokan sits along the banks of the charming Gohyakugawa River, and is surrounded by lush vegetation and a beautiful small garden. The mix of good landscaping and the pretty natural environment immediately reduced our heart rate - it was a very calming atmosphere. It also helped that this is a quiet and quaint property. We didn't see or hear any guests while we stayed there (more on that in a bit), and it felt that we had the whole place to ourselves. Which we did... almost.
Since we were staying the week after the Golden Week holidays, and on a weekday, we were expecting a relatively peaceful time there. What we learned is that Atamiso - at least at the moment - only accepts a maximum of 2 groups of guests, even though they have 11 total rooms. I asked several different ryokan staff members, and they all gave me slightly different explanation as to why. Our butler said that it was to ensure intimacy... the front desk/finance person said the owner is a company that acquired the ryokan 9 years ago, and wanted to keep things super small to ensure high quality service... and they haven't offered all 11 rooms to guests (at the same time) for many years. The head Chef told me that the company does not want to keep a large number of staff members, so they purposely are restricting the number of available guest rooms. Who knows what the reason is? And when Japan reopens to foreigners and COVID has run its course, will Atamiso's policy change? Hard to tell.
What I can tell you is that our experience was very, very private. When making reservations, we researched each of the room options and opted for "Sogetsu," a Tokubetsushitsu (Special Room) with open-air Onsen hot springs bath. The other Tokubetsushitsu was "Tenga no Ma," which did not have an Onsen bath, but had a terrific view of the Gohyakugawa River and the lush foliage surrounding it. Well, they offered us BOTH rooms, so we could enjoy the best of both worlds! While we settled on Tenga no Ma, we were still given the keys to Sogetsu in case we wanted to use the Onsen in the middle of the night.
Tenga no Ma was a great place to spend a peaceful time at Atamiso. It's reasonably spacious, and has a separate living room and "bedroom" (it's a tatami room where they roll out futons in the evening.) While the facilities are not shiny and new, neither was it old and worn out. While amenities were not at a world class level (i.e., single sink, slow internet, slightly dated bathroom, everything was well maintained. Ditto for Sogetsu, which lacked any view but made up for it, somewhat, with an open-air Onsen bath.
While Atamiso technically has two communal open-air Onsen baths (one for each gender), we were told that each group of guests were exclusively assigned to one of them for the entirety of their stay. We were given exclusive access to the "Women's" bath, which also featured the atmospheric view of nature and the river. It was calming, peaceful and oh so relaxing.
When it came to meals, we basically could be served anywhere we wanted... in our room, in the main restaurant, or in any of the unoccupied guest rooms. We told them to make the decision for us. For dinner, we were served in the main restaurant (with no other guests), and we enjoyed our equally private breakfast in a vacant room that had the same great view of the river that our Tenga no Ma room had. Equally astonishing was the fact that every single course (12 total!) was served by the head Chef himself (Mr. Asano), where he also meticulously explained each serving - the ingredients, where they came from, why he combined certain ingredients, why he felt simmering a particular dish brought out better flavors than making it into a soup, the differences between a particular fish's gender, the seasons in which they were caught... things like that. It was fascinating, and a great way to really savor every bite of every course. Not all of it was awesome, but part of it was Mr. Asano's desire to rely as much on locally-sourced and seasonal ingredients as possible, as well as serve traditional local dishes, too. An example of this was Aizu Kozuyu (会津こづゆ), a local soup dish that used to be served to the Lord of the Aizu region. It featured a ton of various local ingredients intended to signify the bountiful harvest, and was prepared in a soup-style format. The taste was nothing special, but then again, I don't think many recipes from the 18th century would hold up well today.) But we enjoyed being treated to local and traditional delicacies. After all, if this wasn't the case, why would foodies travel at all, right?
Breakfast was similarly unique and inspiring. Part of it was the fact that Mr. Asano himself also supervised the Japanese breakfast, which is unusual for a ryokan - most chefs are too busy with preparing for dinner that they often delegate the less sexy breakfasts to other members of the kitchen staff. Not here. While there was still a collection of rice, grilled fish, pickled vegetables, miso soup and tofu, we felt there was much more energy and passion that went into it than at most places, and the local ingredients ensured that we were not having the same 'ol Japanese breakfast.
Overall, we felt that the intimacy of the experience trumped a few shortcomings. Each of the ryokan staff were very personable, and actually got to know them quite well, in spite of only spending one night here. And given the low guest count, they are able to really devote themselves to providing warm, personalized service. As an example - I mentioned to the butler how excited we were to dine at Atamiso, and how Mrs. KI-NRT writes "hurigana" next to the kanji characters on the menu since I often have trouble with complicated kanji (especially in kaiseki cuisine, which the chef often makes up his/her own names, just for the sake of it.) Then, for dinner, she brings out the menu that she herself inscribed with katakana characters next to the kanji ones to spare Mrs. KI-NRT the bother of having to do it for me. Nice touch! We could also tell that this is a small operation where people wear multiple hats. In fact, as we were checking out we noticed Chef Asano personally cleaning the windows of our vehicle! Talk about dedication. Talk about not feeling that any job is beneath them. Other cultures can definitely take a lesson in such attitude and discipline.
What does the future of Atamiso hold, especially in terms of guest numbers? Only the ownership knows for sure. Given how small the property is (and the communal baths are not massive, either), even after COVID they might be best served to keep things at about half capacity. Also, some of the rooms are quite small with very little charm or amenities; perhaps focus on less visitors but higher quality (and higher profit margin) experiences? In any case, our time at Atamiso was a memorable one, and hope that future guests will be afforded the same, bespoke experiences that we enjoyed.
