Yadoya Hiwasa

One of our best stays during our 48 day walk on the Shikoku Henro. Philippe and Yu are the hosts of an inn and collection of carefully tended historic homes, one of which we were lucky enough to stay at in 2024 (Nishiki-Tei). The owners take great care to help henros and have a great understanding of the routes and the many fantastic things to see along the way, along with fluency in at least 4 languages. Due to weather and other concerns, they helped us understand how to catch a bus that would get us partially to Temple 24, which was not obvious to us after great study of the online resources. They saved us many hours of mistakes, that we never made due to their input. Besides helping us make future reservations and chart our path, Philippe shared brilliant recommendations for onsens, museums, castles, etc, many of which we were able to visit. Our henro experience was definitely made richer because of the information and teachings that Philippe and Yu shared. Because Guest House Oyado Hiwasa is early in the route for the 88 Temples, we were not well versed in the culture, language, infrastructure and architecture that we would be surrounded by over the weeks ahead. Every time we had a conversation with Philippe and Yu, they shared\taught us more. Because we were in one of the annex houses and not the main inn, our main point of contact was Philippe, who checked on us, made us incredibly comfortable and brought us our daily breakfast. The architecture/construction information Philippe shared with us as he took us through the rooms of the Nishiki-Tei annex informed so much of what we saw in castles and other historic structures along the rest of our journey through the 88 Temples. The Nishiki-Tei was perfect for our 3 person group, with plenty of rooms so that no one had to share, a clean and wonderful hot bath, cute kitchen and a quiet beautiful living room area with great natural light to lounge\eat in. We were happy that we opted for a rare 2 day stay here and will definitely return when we walk the Shikoku Henro again. It is really hard to pick just one tip that improved our journey but one of my faves was Philippe's mention of a beautiful small museum called Ekingura, in Kochi, about a XIX century painter called Ekin who painted Kabuki theater play posters. The museum is unique in its own right and very close to the pilgrim path, with a small fee. I loved it!!!! Also have to mention that he shared some really interesting info about Temple 24 (one of my faves) that also enhanced our visit there (musical stones). We would have walked with much less understanding in so many areas had we not stayed at the Guest House Oyado Hiwasa. We remain three very grateful henros to Yu and Philippe for helping us navigate the Shikoku Henro and for hosting our stay at their Inn.

Such a wonderful place! The hostel is just so pretty and cozy. And you can rent bike to the nearby onsen and restaurant. The owners are very friendly too.

I stayed there in September 2024 while walking the pilgrimage route.Although I made a last-minute telephone reservation, they kindly accommodated me, and I enjoyed chatting with them during check-in.The owner's personality, which exudes a Kansai feel, made me feel very at ease.The space coexisted with the romance and cleanliness that can only be found in an old folk house, and it was very comfortable. thank you very much!

A beautiful accommodation after the pilgrimage walk, the owners are very nice, they sent things that I had forgotten to my next accommodation, very nice of them, I recommend!