IORI STAY, Hida machiya hotel, provides a local well-being experience

Enter the forest and gently brush the plants. Feel their warmth.
Try chewing the leaves a bit and be surprised at the sweetness of the trees.

In the Hida region, with its World Heritage sites, you can encounter nature that restores your mind and body just by touching it, and a culture unique to the region infused by its people. It’s best to not just view this nature from a distance but to have a valuable experience in which you can really surround yourself with its charm and power.

IORI STAY, a rental luxury townhouse hotel chain located throughout the Hida region, has begun offering three premium activity experiences limited to hotel guests. IORI STAY has six locations in Takayama City and six in Hida City, both in Gifu Prefecture. At each hotel, guests can immerse themselves in life in the Hida area.

See, touch and feel the life of Hida

The first experience offered is the Premium Medicinal Herb Sauna Experience. Guests first enter the Hida forests with an E-bike, and then pick strong wild Lindera umbellata spicebush. They spend a relaxing time distilling steam from natural springs to make herb-infused distilled water which draws out components overflowing with vitality. After healing your body with medicinal herb tea, you can go to a small sauna room heated by a firewood stove. Throwing the original medicinal herb distilled water on the sauna stones will wrap you in an aromatic veil full of healing properties. Surrounded by vibrant fields, this premium healing experience, which can only be found in Hida, is waiting for you.

The second experience is the Experience Living in Hida Through Distillation and Dyeing. This tour starts with the vegetable harvest experience at SOYA UNEHATA, which grows vegetables without using any pesticides or fertilizer. Through encounters with people who live in harmony with nature, you can experience how humans can thrive in the natural ecosystem, while learning hints on how we can live based on well-being, which is necessary for future generations as well as our own quality of life.

After the harvesting experience, you can gather Lindera umbellata spicebush which is native to this farm. During the distillation experience, you extract the components and lock the fragrance in a bottle, while during the dyeing process, you add color to the fabric. With both experiences, the blessings of nature awaken your five senses. Overall, this course offers an excellent chance to reconsider your lifestyle.

The third experience is the Asagiri Forest Walking Tour. In this experience, guests walk alongside a Hida medicinal herb concierge and learn knowledge related to well-being, such as the types, effects and everyday life uses for the medicinal herbs. The Asagiri Forest has two promenades in the north and south. Both are hiking courses that take around 30 minutes and can be freely enjoyed by all ages, from elderly people to young children. These paths are also recommended for children’s independent research projects at school.

IORI STAY, a machiya hotel limited to 1 group per day

HIDAIIYO Co. Ltd. is the company that runs the IORI STAY hotels. Machiya (traditional townhouses), which were once vacant, are revived with different concepts through the skill of regional artisans. They create comfortable spaces while still maintaining the good points of traditional architecture. The Hida region struggles with population decline, an increasingly elderly population and a low birth rate, making the problem especially severe. Thus, IORI STAY seeks to promote regional revitalization through tourism.

Let’s look at three buildings from the six locations in Takayama City and the six locations in Hida City.

1. IORI SETAGAWA

A luxury machiya along the Setagawa River, with its beautiful and unspoilt landscape. At this location, where you can feel the charms of the castle town, a traditional townhouse over 100 years old has been renovated. The bathrooms have private saunas and aroma oil, baths made of Hida cyprus, as well as outdoor bathing spaces. Here, you can enjoy a blissful restoration experience that goes beyond mere healing.

2. IORI YAMAGUCHI

A luxury machiya blended into Shirokabe Dozo Street. They take great care with their natural materials and traditional Hida crafts. They have living rooms and bathrooms with large windows that let you take in nature as well as bedrooms that are overflowing with a feeling of freedom and peace of mind. Take a comfortable soak in a cypress bath while gazing at the colorful carp swimming elegantly. At the terrace looking over Mount Ontake, you can experience the unity of the elegant townscape stretching before your eyes and being surrounded by nature.

3. IORI TONOMACHI

A luxury machiya wrapped in Yamanaka washi paper. They take great care with their natural materials and traditional Hida crafts, and in their bedrooms use lots of Yamanaka washi paper, which is blessed by the nature of Hida. The scenery from the bedrooms, which look as if they were cut out from a painting, features the beautiful Shirokabe Dozo. It is beloved by famous architects and can only be seen from this location, spreading out before your eyes.

IORI STAY has other hotels with different charms located throughout the Hida region. Their three activity experiences – the Premium Medicinal Herb Sauna Experience, the Experience Living in Hida Through Distillation and Dyeing and the Asagiri Forest Walking Tour, can only be enjoyed by IORI STAY guests. Stay at these old machiya and immerse yourself in the nature and culture of Hida. You too can enjoy a premium experience that restores and refreshes your mind and body.

Originally published on Livhub.
Translated by Chris Lee.