I was a business traveller staying at the semi-private room for about 10 days. Here are my experiences:
1. The house is beautiful yet the semi-private room is maybe 1/4 private. People can also see through the room as there's a gap in between pieces of the shoji screen - I've covered it up with 2 long towels. There's no lock or locker.
2. Expect the full noise when people watch TV or do the dishes in the kitchen.The shoji screen to the living room and the kind of a door to the kitchen do not have any soundproof.
3. The wifi and mobile reception are terrible. Don't expect to work from home - only messages and slow web browsing. Not recommended to young, digital nomads. (T-mobile has v weak signal. Charlie uses Verizon he said, so I purchased a new Verizon sim giving up the 10GB data from T-mobile, yet the result was the same)
4. There was no longer the breakfast provided for me when I asked for not making the noise at the kitchen at 1 AM because I couldn't sleep. Ironically, the house rule says keeping quiet after 11 PM.
Charlie was very friendly at first and even baked a cake for me and another guest in the private room. However, there was tension raised several times when I asked for the wifi/mobile reception speed checking and reducing the night time (1 AM) noise (he likes watching TV late - after midnight) etc. It finally made me very uncomfortable when there's no more breakfast provided... because of ??
Hope this helps!