Stayed over at Kotaro and Kei's over the New Year period. Their place was well furnished, charming, and cosy.

We arrived pleasantly surprised to find that they had already prepared bedding with electrically heated mattresses - a super welcome given that we had just come in from a 10-15 minute walk in the cold. If there's just one main drawback to their place, it was its relative distance from the station. But this can easily be gotten around by taking the bus - which my friend and I stubbornly refused.

Make no mistake, the place is small, but more than adequately furnished. The shower was strong and hot. The rooms all clean, and smelt nice. They were also kind enough to prepare snacks for us when we arrived. We do wish that there was heating in the rest of the house (only the bedrooms were heated), but we understand that to heat the other rooms would incur much higher costs so we are happy to live with that.

It is our regret that we didn't get to meet our hosts - they seem like really charming people (be prepared for a sticker onslaught if you communicate on LINE), but we definitely enjoyed our stay there, and would be happy to return.