NIKKO KANAYA HOTEL
Founded in 1873, it is Japan's oldest resort hotel. As a registered tangible cultural property it shows us today the history of the past 150 years.
In 1870, Kanaya Zenichiro, a gagaku (ancient imperial court music) musician at Nikko Tosho-gu, provided his home as lodgings for the American missionary and doctor, Dr. J.C. Hepburn, who invented the Hepburn Romaji spelling system.
He took Dr. Hepburn's advice and renovated his home in 1873, opening it as the Kanaya Cottage Inn, a guesthouse exclusively for foreigners, and In 1893, it began the two-story Kanaya Hotel, with 30 Western-style rooms.
Many famous guests from both inside and outside of Japan, including Lindberg, Helen Keller, Einstein, Shotaro Ikenami, and Eiichi Shibusawa stayed.
From the Meiji period to the Reiwa period today, the Nikko Kanaya Hotel has operated with a strong sense of the architectural beauty of Japan at the time it was established, blended seamlessly with its Western furniture and fixings.
CHUZENJI KANAYA HOTEL
Like Lake Como, a Summer Resort in Italy!
From the Meiji period to the early Showa period, diplomats' and embassies' villas lined the shores of Lake Chuzenji in Okunikko, a place loved by many Westerners.
The Chuzenji Kanaya Hotel is nestled in a beautiful grove of water oak trees, and built with an Canadian wood like a western-style cabin hotel. After overcoming a history of hardships the building was reborn in its current form in 1992. You can also enjoy the milky-white sulfur springs drawn from Nikko Yumoto Onsen.
The dining room "Mizunara" offers original French cuisine that uses plenty of local ingredients.
The mountain cherry blossoms greet the spring, and water oak surround us in summer.
And then there's autumn, when you can enjoy the amazing art of nature, the changing leaves. In winter, a starry sky signals the beginning of the winter sports season.
Here is a true resort life that has been around since the old days