Hikone Hotel with Pool

"The Mercure at Lake Biwa in Nagahama is a lovely hotel with stunning views. It has the proximity to the Nagahama Castle, train station and historical town as attractions. If you arrive early you can store your luggage easily at the entrance. It is secure storage. You unlock a locker, enter a 4 digit code and switch it to lock. This is very convenient. Check in is a bit heinous. The line is usually long until after 5 pm. But seamless even for a non-Japanese patron. You can wait out the line in the free reception. There are alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and bar snacks. The room is nice but dated. I would not sleep on the foldout couch. Maybe just for children 6-10 years old. The beds are okay but not the most comfortable. They provide basic amenities such as a toothbrush and dispenser shampoo, conditioner, and body soap. However, they do not provide washcloths or body scrubbers. The public bathing area was okay but needed maintenance. Free WiFi with providing your email address is a nice benefit. Now the really bad news… dinner. The hotel has a dinner buffet at ¥9300 per adult! That is a ridiculous price. But they have you hostage. We walked the area around the cultural area park where the hotel is located. We found only one yakatori bar open and it had a 1.5 hour waitlist. You would need to go to the other side of the train station to get dinner. We decided to buy carry out cold food from the grocery on the other side of the train station. 7-11 is a 15 min walk"

"The staff was very helpful especially for checking on whether places were open and on obtaining a taxi. The rooms lack places to put your clothes and lack suitcases stands so one must plan to use the limited supply of hangars and live out of a suitcase. The showers are handheld so one might instead plan to use the open facilities and hot baths. The food was excellent and help is available everywhere."