Guesthouse Wasabi

Guesthouse Wasabi was a perfect stay for Iki! Central location, right by Ashibe port on Iki island. Before arriving we hadn't really planned out how we might travel around Iki and hadn't appreciated that public transport may be quite limited, not to worry though as the owner of Guesthouse Wasabi (Takuya) jumped straight to the rescue having electric bikes or vehicles that you could rent, we opted for some electric bikes and spent one of our best days in Japan cycling across Iki island to Monkey Rock. As Guesthouse Wasabi is at the top of a pretty steep hill Takuya also went above and beyond picking us up from or taking us to the nearby port, shops and restaurants when needed. When the weather took a turn (severe rain) and I was keen to still visit Kojima shrine Takuya even helped us out by dropping us over there at low tide! We stayed in the twin room which was really spacious and had a beautiful view over the port! Takuya really makes this a wonderful guesthouse stay, would gladly stay here again!

We booked the twin room at Guesthouse Wasabi so we had a private room, it was really spacious and clean, it had a beautiful view over the port and the beds were extremely comfortable, Felt like a home away from home. Takuya was so helpful, he had tried to contact me about picking us up from the port but I hadn't realised until we actually arrived at the Guesthouse by taxi, the Guesthouse is not far from the port however with big bags and the size of the steep hill it is definitely advisable to either take Takuya up on the offer of a lift or grab a taxi as we did. Takuya helped us so much over the days we were there, always offering to be on hand to pick us up from the port and run us back to the guesthouse when we needed to get back, dropping us at the port when we needed to catch the ferry to leave and he also went to the trouble of taking us all the way to Kojima Shrine on our final day when the weather took a turn for the worse preventing us from going out on the electric bikes knowing how much I had wanted to see it whilst I was there. Takuya offers some rental options for assistance with getting around the island, given public transport is very limited across Iki, because we don't drive he offered us electric bikes which were brilliant but I saw that he also has vehicles for people staying to rent. The first day we went out on the bikes we went all the way across the island to Monkey rock and had an explore around that area before coming back, and we still had at least 30% of charge by the time we got back. Takuya supplied us with a tourist map of the area which helped us navigate around, offered to run us to the shop to pick up supplies if we wanted to cook or eat in (although we ended up at the fabulous restaurant recommended by Takuya called Ajidokoro Umeshima both nights we were there)! There are social spaces both for eating and for relaxing playing games etc if you want to use them. Loved our stay st Guesthouse Wasabi, would definitely come back and stay here again when we next visit Japan and Iki as there is so much more to do on the island that when leaving we both said we wished we had planned in a few more days here! We visited because we wanted to go to some sites that are featured in the video game Ghost of Tsushima, these were Monkey Rock and Kojima Shrine, although I am sure there are more locations we could have visited. They are fabulous to see in person if you are a fan of the game and really accessible from this location on the island. People on Iki island are so friendly and actually some of our best memories were travelling around on the bikes in the sunshine one day and being picked up by a local called Maoko when we were walking back from Kojima shrine in the pouring rain the next... fabulous Island, fabulous people... very chilled in comparison to the mainland.