Shima Tamura

There was no hot water in the bathroom, so I had to go to the bath at night. The bath was poorly equipped, no towels were provided, and there was only one hairdryer. I had to queue up, and there was a lot of dust at the outlet of the hairdryer. It was disgusting.

I stay at ryokans and hotels at least 10 nights a year, but this was my first time staying at Shima Tamura, a long-established ryokan in Shima Onsen. Dinner was the most reasonable "Hana" kaiseki course, but it didn't seem like the food was just bought in and was genuinely delicious, clearly showing the pride of a long-established ryokan that has been around since the Muromachi period. If you just look at the "Hana" dinner, you could call it a ryokan with good food. In other words, I felt the spirit of the head chef and the proprietress who had the food served. What was disappointing was the breakfast. I generally don't choose ryokans with bad food, so I choose ryokans with good food and hot springs from a fairly wide range of ryokans, ranging from 10,000 yen to 50,000 yen for one night and two meals, but this was the lowest I can remember in the last five years. Most recently, I stayed at a ryokan at the beginning of the month for 12,000 yen a night, and a ryokan at 20,000 yen per person later, and both of them had a cost difference that was appropriate for the price, but the breakfast was satisfying. The food at both ryokans is on a different level from Tamura's breakfast. The reason is that they try to make do with ingredients that are available, and the food is not even made with any feeling, and the worst thing is that they have no desire to make people enjoy a delicious breakfast. It's very different from the two hotels where you can feel the maximum effort and spirit within the given budget. The proprietress and the head chef are not happy with anything they serve as long as they don't mention their name. There are many places in Gunma prefecture that serve really delicious breakfasts for under 10,000 yen for one night and two meals. If you think dinner is delicious and you like proper food, I don't think you can accept the breakfast without being told. The side dishes on the six plates had no decent taste except for the eggplant. The ganmo with a mysterious texture... It's OK to make it lightly seasoned, but it's no good if the ingredients have no flavor. The umeboshi plums, nori tsukudani, and seaweed? Tsukudani served with the porridge are all like the big bags from "Omu Supermarket"? Disappointing level. I understand that it takes time and money, but I feel that the balance is off if they don't change the food to something that can be served with the same care as dinner. Summary I felt the pride of a long-established inn at dinner, and the difficulties of running an inn at breakfast. To be strict, if they don't have a budget and serve food that can't even be called that, I felt that they should make onigiri with dinner-level rice, and since miso soup was acceptable, they should just serve miso soup and the pickles they had for dinner. At banquets, guests don't eat breakfast because they have a hangover, so they should serve it... That was a long-ago Showa inn. The Heisei era is over, and breakfast in the Reiwa era should be an important criterion for choosing an inn. If they can make something that good at dinner, I hope the head chef will supervise it carefully and do something about the breakfast... I hope they make it something that is typical of a long-established inn like Shima Tamura. Unlike in the past, breakfast is very important at inns these days, so I think I'll go again in a while, so I hope Shima Tamura will do their best. The rating of 2 is because I couldn't give the breakfast a 1.