Learn Hardcore Japanese: onsenryokan no heya ha hurui desu ga, sizuka de kesiki mo yokute, 「motto hayaku kureba yokatta ne」 to haha ga iimasita. - The room at the hot-spring inn was old but quiet with a nice view, and my mother said, “We should have come earlier, huh?”

旅館: traditional Japanese-style inn (tatami rooms, futons, often communal baths, Japanese meals).
温泉旅館: specifically a ryokan that is built around natural hot springs.
ホテル: Western-style hotel (beds, carpets, more Western layout).

So 温泉旅館 is like saying “hot spring ryokan / hot spring inn”, not just any inn or hotel.

In 温泉旅館の部屋, what is the function of の? Is it possession, like “of”?

Yes, の here works like “of” in English and marks an attributive relationship:

温泉旅館の部屋 = “the room of the hot spring inn” / “the room at the hot spring inn.”

Structurally:

温泉旅館 = hot-spring inn
温泉旅館の = belonging to / associated with the hot-spring inn
部屋 = room

You cannot say ✕温泉旅館部屋 as-is; Japanese almost always needs の between two separate nouns in this kind of relationship.

Why is it 部屋は古いです and not 部屋が古いです? What nuance does は have here?

は marks the topic of the sentence – “as for the room…”.

部屋は古いです: “The room (at that inn), speaking about it, is old.”
If you said 部屋が古いです, it would feel more like you’re identifying which thing is old or emphasizing that it is the room that’s old, not something else.

In this context, the speaker is starting to describe the room as a topic (old, but quiet, with good scenery), so は is natural.

The が in 古いですが – is that the same が as the subject marker?

No, here が is a conjunction meaning “but / although”, not the subject marker.

が after a noun/phrase: connects clauses, similar to “but”.
- 古いですが、静かで… = “It’s old, but it’s quiet and …”
が after a noun or before a verb phrase in other contexts can be the subject marker:
- 母が言いました = “(My) mother said (it).”

So in this sentence you see both:

古いです
- が (conjunction “but”)
母が言いました (が as subject marker).

Why do we have 古いです first, but then 静かで景色もよくて without です? Why the change?

This is because of how Japanese links descriptions:

古いです stands alone as a full clause: “(the room) is old.”
To add more descriptions, Japanese often uses the て-form:
- 静かで = quiet and …
- 景色もよくて = the scenery is also good and …

So structurally you have:

古いですが、静かで、景色もよくて、…
- “It’s old, but (it’s) quiet and (the) scenery is also good, and …”

The です is dropped in the middle because the sentence isn’t finished; you’re chaining multiple qualities and then connecting them to what happens after (the mother saying that line).

Why is it 静かで but よくて? What’s the difference between these two forms?

They show the difference between na-adjectives and i-adjectives in the te-form.

静か (しずか) is a na-adjective (base form: 静かな):
- te-form: 静かだ → 静かで
- 静かで = “quiet and …”
いい / よい is an i-adjective:
- base form for conjugation: よい
- te-form: よくて
- よくて = “good and …”

So:

静かで = na-adjective + で (te-form of だ)
よくて = i-adjective in te-form

Both で and て here are te-forms used to connect to the next part.

In 景色もよくて, what does も do? Why not 景色が or 景色は?

も means “also / too” or “even”.

Here, the speaker is listing good points of the room:

It’s quiet (静かで).
The scenery is also good (景色もよくて).

So 景色も implies something like:

“It’s quiet, and the scenery is good as well.”

If you used:

景色がよくて: more neutral: “the scenery is good and…”
景色はよくて: more like setting “as for the scenery” as a topic, which feels a bit heavier or more contrastive here.

も nicely fits the “listing several good features” feeling.

Why is it よくて and not いいて? Where did いい go?

The adjective いい is a bit irregular:

Dictionary form: historically よい, colloquially いい.
For conjugation (like te-form, past, etc.), Japanese normally uses the よい base.

So:

よい → よくて (te-form)
よい → よかった (past)
But in the positive present, people usually say いい.

That’s why:

Here we get よくて (not ✕いいて).
Later in the sentence, よかった (not ✕よかったです based on いい).

It’s the same word, just different conjugation shapes.

The phrase 静かで景色もよくて ends in て. Isn’t that grammatically incomplete? How does it connect to the rest of the sentence?

By itself, 〜て / 〜で at the end sounds incomplete, yes.

But here it actually connects logically to the following clause:

静かで、景色もよくて、（だから）「もっと早く来ればよかったね」と母が言いました。

The idea is:

“It was quiet, and the scenery was also good, so my mother said, ‘We should have come earlier.’”

The second て (よくて) sort of leads into the result or reaction that follows (the mother’s comment). This is a common usage: te-form can imply “and (so)” / “and because of that”. The sentence relies on context to complete the thought.

In もっと早く, what nuance does もっと add? Is it “faster” or “earlier”?

早く (はやく) can mean “early / earlier” (time) or “quickly / faster” (speed), depending on context.

Here, because we are talking about coming to the inn at some time in the past, 早く means “earlier (in time)”.

早く来る: to come early / earlier
もっと早く来る: to come even earlier / earlier than we actually did

So もっと早く来ればよかった means roughly:

“It would have been better if we had come earlier (than we did).”
Not “if we had come more quickly.”

What grammar pattern is 来ればよかった? How does it express “I wish we had come (earlier)”?

来ればよかった combines:

来れば – the ば-form (conditional) of 来る (to come).
- 来る → 来れば = “if (we) come”
よかった – past tense of いい / よい = “was good / would have been good”.

The pattern:

V-ばよかった = “I wish I had done V” / “I should have done V” / “It would have been better if I had done V.”

So:

来ればよかった = “It would have been good if (we) had come” → expresses regret that we did not come earlier.

Even though ば looks like a present conditional literally, in this pattern it refers to a hypothetical past that didn’t happen. This is a set expression you can memorize as “I wish I had … / I should have …”.

Who is the implied subject of 来ればよかった? Is it “I”, “we”, or “you”?

Japanese often omits the subject when it’s clear from context.

In もっと早く来ればよかったね, possible English renderings include:

“We should have come earlier, huh.”
“I wish we had come earlier.”
In some contexts, even “You should have come earlier,” but here that’s less likely.

Given the situation (family at an inn, mother speaking), the natural assumption is:

“We (our family) should have come earlier.”

Japanese doesn’t specify we, but the listener understands from the shared situation who “the comers” are.

What does ね do at the end of 「もっと早く来ればよかったね」?

ね is a sentence-ending particle that:

Softens the statement.
Seeks agreement, confirmation, or shared feeling.
Can add a sense of “right?” / “isn’t it?” / “don’t you think?”.

So:

もっと早く来ればよかったね ≈
“We should have come earlier, right?” /
“I wish we had come earlier, huh.”

It makes the line feel like the mother is sharing a feeling with the listener, not just stating a cold fact.

Why is it 「…」と母が言いました? Could we also say 母が「…」と言いました? Is there a difference?

Both orders are grammatically correct and common:

「…」と母が言いました。
母が「…」と言いました。

They mean essentially the same thing: “My mother said, ‘…’.”

Subtle nuance:

Pattern 1 (quote first) is very typical in story-style narration: you present the spoken words, then identify who said them.
Pattern 2 (subject first) feels a bit more like English word order and may slightly emphasize who said it first.

In everyday Japanese, you will see both, and they are interchangeable in most contexts.

Why is it 母が and not 母は? What nuance does が add here?

Here, 母が言いました uses が as the subject marker: “(My) mother said (it).”

If you used 母は言いました, you would be making 母 the topic, something like “As for my mother, she said…”, which can sometimes:

Contrast her with someone else (e.g., “My mother said X, but my father said Y”).
Shift the focus to her as the ongoing topic.

In this sentence, we just need to specify who said the line, without any particular contrast, so 母が is natural and neutral.

Why is it 母 and not お母さん? Does that change the meaning?

Yes, there is a nuance difference:

母 (はは): how you refer to your own mother when speaking about her to someone outside the family or narrating a story.
- Neutral, somewhat formal/polite toward the listener.
お母さん (おかあさん):
- How you typically refer to your own mother when talking to her or within the family (like “Mom”).
- Or how you refer to someone else’s mother politely.

In this narrative sentence, 母が言いました signals:

The speaker is talking about their own mother in a neutral, narrative way, not calling out “Mom” directly.