Hello all!

Husband and I are going to Japan in December. We are planning to spend one night in a Ryokan at Hakone (you might have seen my other posts asking about Kansuiro Ryokan in Hakone).

I have been emailing a few ryokans in the area and have received responses from them. Here's the one I got from Kansuiro:

"Hello.
Thank you for inquiring.
'Type B' on December 14 can be reserved.
Information on your visa card is necessary to pass the reservation.
Do you approve it?
When teaching, it is reservation approval.
Examination
Thank you.
kansuiro "

I understand everything before the "When teaching..." bit. I am a little confused and curious as to what they could have meant....especially the "Examination" comment.

Just curious, that's all. Any thoughts on this one?

They want your Visa cc number to hold the reservation.

They have used one of the online translation programs like Alta Vista or babblefish to translate the polite Japanese to English...these programs are not very good on a sentence level, and you can see how bad they really are.

MrW is right. They need your credit card details to hold your reservation.

I see - that Altavista or Babelfish translation theory makes sense. I understood the whole bit about needing my VISA card details to make a reservation but when I read the line about the "Examination" and the "teaching" I was REALLY confused!

The funny thing is I have used Babel to translate some Japanese pages also and have been confused by some of the translations as well - lol!

The Japanese word that is often used when asking for information is oshieru, and this word translates as teach.

Manisha,
My husband and I will be going to Tokyo, Hakone and Kyoto (flying from Cgo too) in early April. We were looking at Kansuiro too. I will be anxious to hear what you think so we can book. what others are you considering? Stay in touch

k,
I will be sure to post a review when we get back. This weekend, my husband and I discussed and we have finally decided on Kansuiro.

We were also looking at Ichinoyu Honkan, Yugiriso and Matsuzakaya Honken. The last two I found out about through http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com I found out about Ichinoyu through many Fodorites on forum posts.

I think what sold us on the Kansuiro were how beautiful the onsens and the ryokan looked in the pictures.