Hotels near Kozoji Temple, Kokuryō

Wonderful small inn in Sasayama, a not very touristy castle town in the hills in Hyogo. I wanted to visit because it is a pottery area but could not find suitable accommodation near the potteries which are about 5km by road from JR Kusano. You still can buy lots of ceramics in Sasayama though, and there are a studio or two but no climbing kilns etc. Anyway, I really liked Sasayama. Its a small town that receives visitors at weekends, mainly domestic visitors, and has a lot of wonderful traditional house accommodations, of which Oito is one. It is an old shop in Kawaramachi Merchant Street that was converted into a spacious cafe with two rooms. I really love the aesthetics of the place, very traditional building stripped back and renovated, with lots of dark wood handmade furniture and carefully chosen accessories, lots of ceramics from all over Japan. I had the cheaper room above the cafe, so you have to go up a small stair and you can hear the cafe but if did not bother me much since the cafe was relatively quiet, and opened from about 9.00-17.00. Room was huge, I could look down Kawaramachi from my bed, and it was so comfortable and beautiful. Staff were lovely too, they gave me so many nice tips and rented a bicycle which was great for cycling all over Sasayama which is a bit spread out. The number of cafes and concept stores for such a small rural town is astonishing.

The hotel was beautiful and the staff went out of their way to help us. They made several restaurant recommendations and bookings for us.

Room is kept clean. Restaurant served dinner with reasonable price is in hotel. Drinks such as coffee and cold drinks are served free .