The Town of Takeda (Hyogo) and How an Old Distillery Turned Hotel Looks Like

By Kansai & Beyond

Updated April 05, 2020

In a previous blog, I wrote about the Takeda Castle Ruins and how to go about visiting it. Today I want to share about the town itself, and the Former Old Kimura Distillery, now turned into a hotel for tourists visiting Takeda.


I will try to do less talking/explaining for this post, and more of a photo blog type post.


However, I do want to share my overall thoughts on my stay at the Former Old Kimura Distillery, aka The EN Takeda Castle Hotel.


The EN Takeda Castle Town Hotel is located just a few minutes walk from JR Takeda station, just at the end of the main road. It is a building that's quite difficult to miss, due to the size and land mass it takes up. However, the entrance to the hotel isn't all that obvious if you are on the same side of the street and surrounded by other traditional Japanese houses down the main street.


An old Japanese building with a hotel sign

The entranceway garden, and also where the private baths are to the left of this picture.
The entranceway garden, and also where the private baths are to the left of this picture.

I had actually entered through the wrong way, as I didn't notice the doorway that had said "hotel". I found my way into the museum/grounds/storage/inner part of the hotel by accident, and entered through there instead. Oops!


Inner courtyard of the hotel

However, the staff were all extremely kind and welcoming. They greeted me warmly and told me I was too early for check-in, but was able to leave my belongings with them while I went to Takeda Castle and explore. So I did.


When I returned for check-in, they sat me down in their reception area. Another family was just finishing up their check-in, and seemed to be the only other group I would be staying with inside this hotel (as I didn't really see other guests that night). The staff member in charge of checking me in explained to me a bit about the hotel, and that besides their main building, they had other rental "machiya" (traditional Japanese wooden houses) that guests were able to rent out. These machiya were scattered along the main strip I had walked through from the station. Whilst explaining, another staff member had served me up some welcome treats and drinks - which I gladly partook in. After a few more things to take care of, the staff asked me to pick out a toiletry bag, all of different patterns and designs. I chose this one and my yukata for the night:


A bag with a blanket and a yukata

When I was all ready, the staff member showed me to my room - which was just down the hall from the reception area. Very close! She explained to me that my room used to be part of a hallway in the Distillery, which is now made into a room. She then showed me how to lock my doors and told me to careful of the step down to my room, and then took me on a brief tour of the main building.


Just before heading to the public baths, we came across this door. Which to my surprise, was another room! Pretty neat!


An old heavy storeroom doorView into a guest room

You had to briefly step outside to get to the public baths and the dining hall, which was across the grounds of the main building.


An old heavy stone door with a sign for the public bath
Public Bath

Dining Hall exterior
Dining Hall

And that concluded everything that I needed to know for my stay. The staff member kindly reminded me of the number to the front desk, and left me to explore and enjoy my room.


View of the guest room
The closet... which has the coffee machine inside. Very important!

The door to the bathroom...
The door to the bathroom...

Bathroom with toilet
Bathroom with toilet

The view of the grounds, dining hall and Takeda Castle in the back
The view of the grounds, dining hall and Takeda Castle in the back

Since I did not have a dinner plan, I went back outside to properly explore the town. And get some light meal. Not too far from the hotel, there are a few food options like okonomiyaki, izakaya and a pancake cafe called Powan. I opted for the pancakes. Nothing like all-day breakfast, right?


Pancake cafe exteriorA plate with bacon, sausage and pancakes

With a full stomach, I went to explore the neighbourhood. Behind the hotel, there were actually some very interesting homes.


Exterior of a neighbourhood house
A Hello Kitty statue in a canal
Hello Kitty and Pikachue statues in a canal
Neighbourhood street with small canal
Flowers in a canal
(click the arrows to scroll)

A few of these homes have a water drainage canal/gutters that have the koi fish swimming in it. That surprised me as I knew a few other towns like Gujo Hachiman were famous for this, but I did not know Takeda had built these canals too. Which was a nice welcoming surprise to see.


A canal with koi fish along an old wall
More koi fish in the gutters and water drainage

A super low path just right underneath the train tracks, if you want to get across to the other side
A super low path just right underneath the train tracks, if you want to get across to the other side

To be honest, there isn't much to do in the town. There are a few hiking trails, but in terms of entertainment, this isn't the place for it. Which of course, makes it a great place to just relax and wind down from the city life.


After exploring the neighbourhood, I returned to the hotel to explore the grounds a bit more.


Hotel exterior
Hotel exterior
Hotel Dining Hall exterior
Narrow wooden staircase within hotel
Narrow hallway with sliding doors
Reception area in the hotel
Reception area in the hotel
(click the arrow to scroll through the pictures)

If you looked into some of the buildings, you can still see some of the tools they used back when it was a distillery. They have an open museum part in the main building, which tools and equipment left behind from Distillery. Unfortunately I wasn't able to some good pictures for that though (sorry!)...


Just as night fell, I partook in the public bath (nothing to ring home about, unfortunately), did a bit of work, enjoy the light up of Takeda Castle from my window and went to bed.


The next morning, I after my little excursion, I went for breakfast in the dining hall.


A tray of typical Japanese breakfast dishes

Breakfast in Japanese hotels, as everyone can tell you, is never worth it. But I knew I wouldn't be able to get a good sit-down meal until I get to Kinosaki onsen much later in the day, so I decided to partake in it. While it was definitely delicious, the price of 2000yen for small portions of veggies, fish and lots of tofu-inspired pieces don't seem to be worth it at all.


Here are some pictures of the dining hall, by the way:


Interior of the dining hallInterior of the dining hall

All in all, it was a fun stay. I don't know if I would do it again. The price for the overall stay isn't exactly cheap (about $200 CAD for one night), and while it was an awesome experience, there was one thing that really bugged me. Soundproofing. Well, lack of it. It was extremely difficult for me to sleep that night as the structure was all just wood... and wood creaks. A lot. If you can afford the machiya in the separate buildings, I think you wouldn't run into this problem at all. But with my room being so close to the reception area, this was definitely an issue.


Overall though, I did enjoy Takeda and I'm really glad I chose to stay a night there. I hope you'll decide to visit as well one day!

related posts

Social media

River with cherry blossomsWoman sitting on a bench at a lakeTacosA bowl of yellow stuffOsaka castle

We use essential cookies to bring you our content and to offer a better website experience.
We'd like to use other cookies to analyse our website's performance and learn more about what our users like, but only if you accept.
Learn more about your choices in our privacy policy