Kyoto Shirakawa Kiraku Inn - Hostel

The ojisan managing the place was violent and beyond rude and inhospitable. About a week before our stay, I had tried to call and change the reservation from two nights to one (in Japanese). Ojisan was short with me on the phone and said he was UNABLE to change the reservation because it was made on Agoda, not through him. So I said ok and decided just to keep the reservation as it was. When we arrived to stay, he told us that I had called and cancelled one night, so our reservation was only for one night. Except we had never been refunded for the 2nd night, and our reservation on Agoda still reflected that we were staying TWO nights and had paid for both of them. When I tried to explain to him that our reservation was still for two nights, not one, and that we had in fact already PAID for TWO nights (and showed him the invoice on Agoda and our bank payment on my phone, he flipped his sh*t, flew off the handle, and full on started screaming in my face. He was forcefully poking at my phone, (cuz I was showing him proof of our reservation and payment on it) then poking at my chest several times as he screamed in my face. He also put his hands on my shoulders twice, and kept calling me a liar and stupid in Japanese. I thought he was either gonna throw my phone, or hit me, or both. Then I thought he was gonna keel over and die from a heart attack because he was so upset. He was seething and breathing raggedly, and he had that look in his eyes. He kept refusing to refund one night and said if we wanted to stay the second night, we’d have to pay AGAIN (essentially for a third night)! I was trying to calm him but was also insistent on either staying two nights or getting a refund for one night. He kept yelling (and scaring the other guests) and then went into his office and we could hear him typing away (and still swearing), and then he emerged having drafted a document saying we had cancelled and been refunded one night (except we hadn’t), AND, it was magically backdated. I told him if the room was available (which it was), we wanted to stay for both nights that we had paid for. He refused and said I’d cancelled and we’d have to pay again if we wanted to stay a second night…still cursing at me in Japanese. It was like a dreadful scene in a movie. We finally just said ok to get away from him. But both of us felt unsafe and traumatized from the interaction, and the energy of the place was so toxic that we just booked two nights at a different accommodation and left immediately. Thankfully he had stepped out and we didn’t have to see him as we left. We complained about the experience to Agoda and received a full refund for both nights. Dude was beyond tripping. It was just a miscommunication, but he couldn’t/wouldn’t meet me in the middle. I’d never experienced anything like it before, and def not in Japan (I live in Japan now). Not sure what was going on for him that night, but beware if you upset him…he’s likely to fly into a rage and cannot de-escalate. I only wish I had started recording cuz it was ludicrous. The cat was cute tho.

Very reasonable, relaxed, friendly inn with a lovely cat too! The proprietor was very helpful too when I asked questions about how to reach some far off remote locations.