ryokan in hakone in winter

any suggestion which ryokan to book for december? From website ie.)booking.com, they are all fully booked especially those nearer to any stations namely Gora or Hakone-Yumoto. Any idea if they are just not open for booking or they are genuinely fully booked for winter????

Appreciate any suggestions of some nice Ryokan in Hakone.

Oh, should we book the partially boarded ryokan or just take the accommodation and source food outside the hotel?

We had a brilliant stay at Lalaca at Gora. They email in perfect english too, so email them and see if they have rooms available. sometimes hotels dont take bookings that far away so you get the message that they are full when they are not. but at Lalaca we took the western/japanese room which was huge and had a bathroom, as well as the japanese room next to it which was big but just had a toilet, you'd use the onsens downstairs. the food was great and the people lovely, so I recommend it whenever I get the chance.