Sasayama And It's Undiscovered Castle Town! 

Thanks for watching and the kind words! Japan is truly amazing and we are glad to share it with others.

The Maruyama Village just outside Sasayama is a very special place where we met some locals who knew Josephine's father many years ago. Small world! We'll be producing a video in the next few weeks that is solely about Maruyama Village. Be sure to look for it!

Thanks for visiting the channel! Japan is the most amazing country and we love sharing our knowledge with others!

Thank you!

You're welcome. We sincerely enjoy sharing our experiences and hope they are helpful. Appreciate you watching and commenting. Next up is Nagoya.

Thank you for watching. Sasayama is a hidden gem of a town. We first visited Sasayama in the early 90's before Maruyama Village was available for guests. Its the most amazing little place. We anticipate uploading an entire video on Maruyama Village in a couple of weeks. Be sure to watch and subscribe so you know when it comes out. This RU-vid thing is very new to us (we only uploaded our first video five weeks ago), so your comment is very appreciated for beginners like us!

Will do! Soba, udon, tonkatsu and much more!

Thanks for the question, and glad to share some of our experiences. We've stayed in several and have had good experiences in all. Each host has been very responsive both prior to arrival and during arrival, but that can obviously vary greatly. English communication has been fine. Perhaps the first thing foreign visitors must prepare for is the registration process by which we are required to provide an image and data from our passports. Its a government thing, so don't be upset when asked. The ones in which we've stayed in recent years have all used online services in advance wherein we can upload most of the information. Some have electronic tablets at the location where you sign in upon arrival so that you never meet your host. If you haven't already provided your passport information beforehand, doing the registration at the property can be very tedious and time consuming, especially if you're suffering from jetlag. So that's my primary advice: do as much paperwork ahead of time. We go back and forth between VRBO/Airbnb versus hotels. We like the space of a VRBO, but also the service a hotel provides (assuming staying at a full service hotel and not an inexpensive budget hotel). Honestly, its nice to be able to simply turn in your keys and walk away from the hotel whereas at a VRBO you have to put out the trash, clean the dishes, straightening up, etc. Not only that, but Japan requires you to separate all your trash, and that is a hassle for those of us who are accustomed to tossing most everything into one bin. However, I'll share this one nugget: I'll be doing an upcoming video that includes our private tour of the Waste and Incinerator Plant in Osaka, and I must say after having toured it, I have a greater appreciation for the recycling efforts of the Japanese. Yes, we toured a trash plant! But it was amazing and it looks like something out of Willy Wonka. But back to VRBO's. One thing a lot of VRBO's provide that hotels may or may not is a washer/dryer. We travel very light. For three weeks, we each just take one small roll on, and we do laundry as we go. Having access to laundry at our place is a lifesaver, especially during the summer in Japan when you'll sweat off two pounds a day. Seriously, we will often arrange our plans just so that we have access to laundry (that's going to be another video topic). Parking is another thing to double check. Not an issue if you're going by train and taxi, but if you're renting a car, make sure you can park it at the property or close by. The house in which we stayed in the Sasayama video was in another class altogether. Will be doing a full video on that one, but if there were only one place I could recommend, it would be that one. I meant it when I said in the video that we've never had such an experience. It was a mix of VRBO and hotel/inn. Will be glad to provide contact info if you'd like. But in short, VRBO's are great options. I encourage trying out one or two. We've never had a bad experience, its just a different option, and a nice option at that. Thanks again for watching and asking a great question. This RU-vid stuff is all new to us (in case you haven't read our story on our website). Please share our story with others! Appreciate any points of interest you'd like us to cover. We're returning in a few weeks for more material.