Oku Hida ryokan

I am trying to book either Yumoto Choza, Fukuchi Onsen or Yarimaikan Ryokan Shin-hotaka. I am sorry that I do not read or speak Japanese. Can anyone suggest how I can book. I have tried japanguesthouses (even though I have booked 9 nights accommodation with them they have ignored my requests on this)and the information cetre at Takayama through hida.net. No packaged hotel sites on the net seem to list them - but they are in Lonely Planet and mentioned in this forum. Should I send them a fax - and if so which is the fax numbers? Will they be offended if I draw pictures describing what I want?

Travel hound,

I have been to Yumoto Choza in 2005 with an old friend. The place was great, yet no one spoke any English and I do not believe that they have any Web Site.

If you have anyone that speaks Japanese to help make the reservations may be the way to go. If I could I would but I am not that capable.

Take a look at the write up at:

http://www.onsenexpress.com/site/display/displayonsen.php?di...

Or the sister ryoken Katsuragi-no-sato

http://www.onsenexpress.com/site/display/displayonsen.php?di...

Try contacting that site and they may have a lead for you.

Tenshi

Welcome to the wonderful world of trying to book a ryokan you know is there, but how do you get to them?
Here is Yumoto Choza's home page (Japanese):
http://www.cyouza.com/
They don't seem to have an e-mail address. I've had luck before with e-mail in English, and then I've had it fall into a deep dark well and never be heard from again.
Here is Yarimikan's home page (Japanese):
http://www.yarimikan.com/
they have an English page!
Fukuchi Onsen is the name of the hot spring town in which Yumoto Choza is located - it's kind of misleading.
The best thing I can recommend is to see if somebody can call for you, or even try calling yourself.
You can also try contacting japanhotel.net, and you can try a search on www.clipit.jp - it is a list of hotel/ryokan websites. The English side is of course limited but the Japanese side has hundreds.
A last resort would be to try the JNTO website, they have become more and more user-friendly and may have options for helping out in a situation like this. They have links to other hotel/ryokan booking services too.

Thank You Tenshi and Spendthrift. Much appreciated. As suggested, I've emailed Onsenexpress - who mention on their site they may be starting an onsen booking service soon. Fingers crossed. Otherwise I'll have to resort to drawing stick figures and cartoons on a fax, while still trying to give the onsen the impression I can afford to pay for the room.
(PS If anyone out there wants a business in booking small onsen for English speakers, I think you would have a ready market. I hope its not this hard for our Japanese visitors in Australia. But then I suppose that is some of the adventure of travel.)

I too am trying to book Yarimikan. I have faxed and they have faxed back in reasonable english- my problem is the fax ran out of ink and I only got half a page!!! Fax no on their website.