Minshuku Maetakeso

My brother and I stayed at the end of September 2013. We were picked up at the Anbo Ferry within 15 minutes of calling. The landlady took us to a seaside onsen and also showed us some sights on the way. Naturally we gave her some money for petrol (the bus ride back took 40 minutes). She arranged our taxi to the Arakawa Trail entrance for about the same price as hiring a car for the day (the minshuku charges very reasonable rates for car hire) which was sensible as the road up is winding with monkeys and deer in the early morning and the 10 hour round trip to Jomon Sugi is exhausting, and most of the year you have to park and take a shuttle bus. The food was more than adequate and very fresh local produce (they grow a lot of it themselves). On our last day we were taken to the Yakisugi museum which is worth visiting. The museum called our landlady and she took us to Anbo port. The landlady speaks a little English but preferred my intermediate level Japanese. She was very keen to establish that we weren't vegetarians! Nandemo tabemasu (there's nothing we don't eat) I replied. All in all this was a great experience and much of the credit goes to the minshuku