Hotel Sohkan Matsushima: A Stay Review — What’s Dinner and Breakfast Like?

For this trip, I stayed at Hotel Sohkan, part of the Daiwa Roynet Onsen Monogatari group, in Matsushima, Miyagi. Every room has an ocean view, so on a clear day you can take in the islands of Matsushima Bay across the seasons.

In this article, I’ll share my honest impressions and review of my stay at Hotel Sohkan.

If you’re curious about staying at Hotel Sohkan, or you’re hunting for a good hotel around Matsushima, this article should be a great fit for you, so stick around to the end.

Who Hotel Sohkan Is a Great Fit For

Matsushima sits in the northeast of Miyagi Prefecture.

As a scenic district that includes the Matsushima hills, it’s recognized as one of Japan’s Three Great Views, making it one of the prefecture’s best-known sightseeing destinations. With around 30 hotels in the area, it’s easy to get stuck deciding where to stay.

This time I chose Hotel Sohkan with sightseeing in Matsushima in mind, and after actually staying here, I’d say Hotel Sohkan is a great fit for people who match the following:

• Want a hot-spring hotel with a view over Matsushima Bay
• Want highly rated dinner and breakfast buffets
• Want to keep accommodation costs as low as possible

Let’s go through each one.

First, people who want a hot-spring hotel with a view over Matsushima Bay.

Hotel Sohkan sits on a hilltop, and since every room faces Matsushima Bay, you get a sweeping view of it. The next morning, you can even watch the sunrise over the Pacific from Matsushima Bay — a hotel well worth it if you want a spectacular view.

Second, people who want highly rated dinner and breakfast buffets.

Hotel Sohkan scores above 3.8 on Rakuten Travel reviews, which puts it firmly in the well-regarded tier — and reviews from a wide range of guests really do matter. Its location and its abundant natural hot spring, drawing 180 liters a minute, score a particularly high 4.0. Both dinner and breakfast are buffet-style, with the dinner’s seasonal Japanese-Western creative buffet being especially popular.

Third, people who want to keep accommodation costs as low as possible.

As a well-known sightseeing spot, hotel rates around Matsushima tend to run high — even in the rainy June-to-August stretch, the average hotel rate for one night runs around ¥27,000. That’s steep.

Hotel Sohkan, by comparison, is relatively affordable, with weekday stays available for around ¥20,000 a night.

Access to Hotel Sohkan

Hotel Sohkan sits about a 15-minute walk from Matsushima Station on the Tohoku Main Line, or a 5-minute walk from Takagimachi Station on the JR Senseki Line — a hotel operated by the Daiwa Roynet Onsen Monogatari group, set within a Japanese garden spanning roughly 1 hectare.

Facing Matsushima Bay, one of Japan’s Three Great Views, the hotel offers two kinds of hot spring: an indoor bath and an open-air bath.

Between dinner and breakfast, there’s a Japanese-Western creative buffet of around 120 dishes, including a live cooking station serving freshly grilled Miyagi-style beef tongue.

There’s also a comic corner and a table-tennis area, so the entertainment facilities are well covered too.

Hotel Sohkan Plans and Rates

The plan I actually booked and stayed on was Rakuten Travel’s “Takagi Hall, 10-mat Japanese-style room (non-smoking),” which came to ¥19,800 on a weekday rate including dinner and breakfast. Split between two people, that works out to under ¥10,000 each — a real bargain for a hotel in Matsushima at this price point!

Hotel Sohkan: Hotel Overview

Now let’s get into the details of my stay at Hotel Sohkan.

I drove to the hotel and used its free parking lot. With 200 spaces, it’s unlikely to ever fill up.

It’s a bit of a distance from Matsushima Station, but there’s a free shuttle bus (running 14:00-18:00), so taking the train still works out fine.

Check-In

Right as you walk in the main entrance on the 1st floor, there’s a front desk just to the right. After going over the facility basics and confirming the dinner and breakfast times, I was handed my room key.

With its own Japanese garden on-site, the front desk and lobby area are spacious. Since the front desk sets the tone for the whole hotel, a clean, roomy space like this really builds up your expectations.

Checkout is at 11:00 — a nice touch, since it means you can take your time with the hot spring and breakfast buffet in the morning.

Guest Room

Guest rooms are split between two wings, the Takagi wing to the west and the Isozaki wing to the east, each with rooms from the 1st to the 4th floor.

My room was a 10-mat Japanese-style room, with the futon already laid out. Toward the back there’s a space called a hiroen, with a chair and table — a nice spot to sit and chat while looking out over Matsushima Bay.

The room really did look out over Matsushima Bay! It was a shame the weather was a bit overcast that day.

There’s an LCD TV set between the pillars — a little small given the size of the room. Viewed from the side, the pillar actually gets in the way of seeing the screen properly.

Below the TV there’s an old-fashioned lockable safe and an internal phone line.

True to the Daiwa Roynet Onsen Monogatari group style, there’s a pick-your-own yukata service — you can grab any color you like from the selection at the 1st-floor front desk.

A classic ryokan-style Japanese table and chair set. Since the futon was already laid out, the table had been pushed off to one corner. Worth noting: there’s no Wi-Fi signal in the room, but you can use the free internet via the computer next to the 1st-floor front desk.

Near the entrance there are slippers, a fabric refresher spray, and a two-door mini fridge. On top of the fridge, there’s a T-fal electric kettle and a glass for each guest.

Bathroom, Sink, and Toilet

The sink shows some age and is on the compact side, but since it’s in its own enclosed space, it’s easy to use.

Sliding the door open next to the sink leads to the toilet. Being a sliding door, you can use it without feeling cramped.

The bath is its own small, independent space. Since there’s a large communal bath and open-air bath on site anyway, you’ll likely never actually use the in-room bath.

Large Communal Bath at Hotel Sohkan

The large communal bath and open-air bath are on the 1st floor of the Takagi wing to the east, so if you’re staying in the Isozaki wing to the west, it’s a bit of a walk. They’re open until 24:00 at night and from 5:00-10:00 in the morning, so you can take your time whether it’s late at night or early morning.

The hot spring here, in Matsushima — one of Japan’s Three Great Views — runs hot, leaving you gently warmed through with a soft, soothing feel.

The indoor “Moonlight Bath” is a naturally sourced hot spring that lets you take in the grand scenery while soothing your whole body — a gentle, weakly alkaline water drawn straight from the hotel’s own source.

Open-Air Bath

The open-air bath has two pools at different temperatures, letting you relax facing Matsushima Bay while the sea breeze drifts by. It’s a bit of a shame that a fence blocks a full, open view of the bay.

Sauna at Hotel Sohkan

There’s a dry sauna running around 90°C, with capacity for up to 6 people. Instead of a 12-minute clock, there’s only a sand timer. There’s no cold plunge after the sauna, so after rinsing off at the station in front of the sauna room, I’d recommend cooling down outdoors in the sea breeze instead.

Dinner at Hotel Sohkan

The earliest dinner seating starts at 17:00.

The standout features were the fresh-off-the-grill steak, freshly fried seasonal fuki-no-to tempura, and a beef-tongue live cooking station, which drew a steady crowd of guests.

As you’d expect, the Miyagi-style beef tongue was the most popular dish by far.

It seems to vary by season, but in winter there’s apparently an all-you-can-eat crab and tuna menu too. An all-you-can-drink alcohol menu is also available.

Breakfast at Hotel Sohkan

Breakfast is also buffet-style, with an all-you-can-eat mixed seafood rice bowl. Japanese options include the breakfast staples — natto, grilled fish, simmered dishes, miso soup, and noodles (udon and soba) — while Western options cover omelets, sausages, ham, and more, with both styles well represented. Salad and seasonal fruit are included too, of course.

Breakfast also has its own live cooking station serving French toast.

Final Impressions of My Stay

The dinner and breakfast buffets were the biggest reason I booked this stay, and they lived up to expectations — a wide variety of dishes with that live-cooking touch that left me genuinely satisfied.

The view of Matsushima Bay from the room was lovely, though the room layout means the quality of the view can vary quite a bit by room, so if that matters to you, it’s worth confirming with the hotel ahead of time.

Wi-Fi was available in the 1st-floor lobby, but not in the guest rooms, so keep that in mind if you’re counting on Wi-Fi during your stay.

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About the author

Joe

I love hotels, hot springs, and saunas across the whole country!!
I’ve made it to 40 prefectures so far.
Around 100 hotel stays and 50+ saunas visited, and the count keeps climbing.
My hobbies are travel, golf, snowboarding, saunas, and the gym.

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