Hotel berhampiran JR Nishi-otaki station, Iiyama

初めての野沢温泉です。熱湯で硫黄臭も並レベルかなと思いあまり興味はもたなかったのですが、 冬の露天はぬるくなると聞き、野沢温泉の中ではややお高い野沢グランドホテルにお安く予約できたので宿泊しました。 古さが感じられるも、元々が良いホテルなのでしょうか、古くさいホテルではありませんでした。 部屋は必要なものが揃っており不便さは感じられません。 ただペーパータオルがトイレで、洗面所が普通のタオルだったので、これは逆でしょ？と思いました。 夕食は前菜が良かっただけに続く品が印象深いのがなくて残念。 本場の野沢菜はどれだけ旨いのか期待していましたが、いつもスーパーで買ってくる野沢菜と同じでそこががっかり。 朝食はバイキングでパンは何種類もあり小分けで包んであるのでこれはよかったです。 シャインマスカットの食べ放題は予想外でこれは実にうれしかったです。 牛乳も瓶でまさに牛乳を飲んだぞ！って感じなります。 大浴場は麻釜。硫黄臭は予想通り弱くうーん・・・って感じです。 畳敷きでお年寄りも安心ですね。 三つの浴槽で熱湯の浴槽は意外と普通の熱湯レベルで我慢できない事はなかったです。 熱湯だから源泉がドバドバと思っていたら単純に熱湯の浴槽が狭いから熱くなるって事です。 やや熱めの湯の浴槽は大きい浴槽なので熱湯の浴槽と比べて温度が落ちます。 寝湯は大きい浴槽のお湯がそのまま流れ浅いので更に温度が下がります。 大浴場はがっかりしたので露天もダメかなぁと思っていたら、硫黄臭が強くしかも適温なのでこれはまさに素晴らしいと感じました。 源泉が真湯+麻釜、温度が下がると麻釜の源泉が多くなるようです。 ただ夜中は入れず朝はおそめなのでがっかりしながらも早朝に期待しました。 案の定、露天に続くエレベーターが作動しないので暇つぶしに大浴場に。 なんと前日と比べて全体的に熱くなっています。熱湯なんて足しか入れませんでした。 露天が開いたので露天に期待と思っていたら露天も熱くてちょっとしか入れませんでした。 まぁこれが野沢温泉だよなぁ・・・と現実と向き合いながら朝食を食べた後、温泉に浸かる事もなく帰りました。 接客は良かったのでこれは問題なしでした。夕食がもうちょっと頑張ってほしかったです。 泉質を抜きで考えて★3に近い★4かなと感じました。

酒店距離北飯山火車站5分鐘路程，但因為大雪的緣故，足足走了20分鐘，前台小哥不錯，雖然不懂英文，但拿着翻譯機耐心翻譯

Gorgeous lodge with fabulous hosts. They were so patience and kind. The breakfast was yummy both Japanese and western. It was immaculate and so comfortable. It is close to the lifts and the centre of town.

Old japanese house in a small village. Very very cool. The hosts will pick you up from the Iiyama station. Very helpful. Very generous. Strongly recommend. :)

おそらく小学校を改装して作られたホテルだと思われますが、外見に見合わず、中は北欧のスタイリッシュホテルといった漢字。ニューヨークのおしゃれホテルような1階ロビーには、正直外観と違いすぎて驚きました。 全体的にイメージが統一されており、ハイアットグループなみ（もしくはそれ以上に感じましたが。。。）デザインのバランスが素晴らしいです。素材の使い方、電球やライトのセレックション、照明の当て方まで、「おいおい本当にこの価格でいいのか？」と疑います。そのくらい素晴らしい。 お部屋は大して広くはないです。ただそれは数字で見た時の話。 実際の体感としては十分です。なぜなら余計なテーブルやらソファやゴミ箱などが一切ない。椅子だって背もたれはないですが、その分机の下にすっぽり入るので邪魔にならないし、目に入らない。なので大きく感じる。この辺はやはり北欧のシンプルモダンを意識されてのデザインだと思います。素晴らしい。 アメニティも十分。女性は色々持ってきたほうが良いとは思いますが、パジャマだってかなり快適な素材です。 このホテルの良さを表しているのがお風呂です。温泉はもちろんいいです。 が、1番驚いたのは「赤ちゃん対応」。まず脱衣所に赤ちゃんを座らせて置ける椅子が、ちゃんと男性用にあります！これはすごい！！昔、これがなくて結構困りました😆オムツを捨てるゴミ箱だってある。 圧巻は浴室側に設置された子供用のお風呂と、なんと泡石鹸！お風呂はよくありますが、泡石鹸まで装備されているのは初めて。。。これが男性側にあるなんて、本当に進んでいる素晴らしいホテルだと思いました！ 食事はビュッフェですが、質はかなり高いです。レストラン自体がそんなに大きくはないので、逆にわさわさしておらず、気持ちよく食事ができました。 スタッフの方も皆さん親切。ハイアットみたいに洗練されている、といった感じではないですが、上述の通り細部まで、お客様のことを考えて設計、設置されていることからもわかるように、お客様に寄り添うようなサービスです。 こんなに小さいのに、ちょっとだけでもルームサービスがあるも嬉しい。 また来たいと思える素晴らしいホテルでした。

From the moment you enter Kokuya Ryokan, be prepared to leave the real world behind and fully immerse yourself in the experience. You swap your shoes for slippers at the door and don’t see them again until you leave. You will receive a warm welcome from polite and gentle-mannered staff, get taken up to your beautiful room, and once you’ve changed into your traditional yukata, it’s time to let the relaxation begin. The multi-course dinner will probably be one of the best meals you’ve had in your life, with many unusual textures and flavors to try. The futons are comfortable, and your room is kept toasty warm. There are even skincare products to keep you pampered and moisturized between soaks in the onsen. Honestly, you won’t even need to open your suitcase while you’re there. The staff will take you through all the logistics when you arrive, but there are some things that might be useful to know in advance. - The ryokan sends a shuttle to Yudanaka station at about 15:00 to collect new arrivals, so time your journey to take advantage of this benefit. - The ryokan also offers guests the opportunity to catch a shuttle to the Snow Monkey Park immediately after breakfast the next morning. - After you leave the ryokan, they will take your luggage down to the coffee shop opposite the station, so you don’t need to worry about those logistics. - Trains from Yudanaka back to Nagano leave at 12:30 and 15:30. - The ryokan itself has several private onsens that you can reserve for a 45-minute slot. Because the onsens are on the property, you can go in with your partner or travel companions regardless of gender. It’s a boutique hotel, so you don’t have to worry about not getting access to all the onsens you want. - The ryokan is on the main road of the Shibu Onsen town. The hotel will give you a key so you can wonder down the main road, visiting any of the public onsens you wish - however, with so many gorgeous and more private onsens in the hotel itself, you probably won’t have time or the desire for this. - Also, there is a coffee machine in the room! (I was worried about having to survive without coffee, and this turned out to be an unfounded concern). We had an incredible and totally indulgent time at Kokuya. Experiencing a traditional ryokan is a privilege that you should try at least once if you can. And adding the Snow Monkeys in give the trip a double purpose, making it that much more memorable. The only thing that would have made the trip better is if we had been allowed to linger longer over every course of our dinner.

I wouldn't stay here again because the walls are so thin. We heard loud noises from the room next door. They were not foreigners, they were speaking Japanese. We had to call the front desk twice, however they did quiet down after the 2nd call. The onsen is not that great because you just stare at a wall and also on one side you go outside and walk down a steep stair case. Seems like a lot of young people stay here. Pay the extra $100 and stay somewhere else if you want to have a more relaxing and quiet stay. Rooms are old and out dated. The toilet room smelled bad. However, the food was pretty good . . .actually better than I expected for the hotel. Also, they prepared the most appropriate kids's meals. Location is a 8 min. walk down one street to the Yudanaka station, however they will pick you up if you have a lot of luggage and I think they also have a shuttle bus you can take to the monkey park.

What a lovely spot! 2 minutes walk from the train station, we stayed in a traditional Japanese room which was great fun. The room was huge, 2 comfortable futons, low table with floor seats, kettle in the room (bring your own tea or coffee) and a good shower. The owners were extremely helpful despite the language barrier (Google translate was successfully used). They advised us on onward train timetables, gave us a ride to the Snow Monkeys Park saving us having to wait for the bus, picked us up again, gave my husband and I a private onsen session and delivered a huge cooked Chinese breakfast to our room in the morning. When we left they gave us an ornamental chopsticks set as a gift. Can highly recommend this ryokan.

If you plan to ski in Shiga Kogen and you’re wondering where to stay, you have to answer a first basic question: do you stay in a contemporary hotel up on the slopes, or down in the valley in a traditional Japanese ryokan with an onsen fed by natural hot springs? This review is a recommendation to go for the ryokan experience, and specifically for the Shibu Hotel in the village of Yudanaka. To understand the Shibu’s charms I’m prefacing my comments with what I think is important context and useful info. Shiga Kogen is a vast ski area of 18 interlinked resorts. The resorts are located on the slopes of the mountains at about 1400 meters (4600 ft). Many appear to have been built in the 1990s for the Nagano olympics. Many of them are ski in/out. We did not visit any of them, but as best we could tell there are few if any restaurants, bars or convenience stores that aren’t located inside a hotel. These are resorts. The resort experience is probably great. There are so many lifts and gondolas that we literally did not have to wait in line once. There are so many trails that we never felt crowded. There were even times we had an entire piste to ourselves from the summit at 2000 meters to the gondola station below. In five days skiing we managed to explore a fraction of the Shiga area. It’s fabulous. If all you want to do is shred, ski out at 8:30 and ski back in at 4:30, this is the place to do it. You can ski till you drop. But if you also want a bit of the Japanese cultural experience, you should stay in Yudanaka, an ancient little village built around the Shibu Onsen hot baths whose history goes back more than a thousand years to when it was the place for a bath and a rest for pilgrims on their way to the Zenkoji Temple. Yudanaka is the last stop on the Nagano Dentetsu electric rail line. The main village lane is a charming narrow street cobbled with small pavers and lined by traditional wooden ryokan and small stores (one converted to a free public table tennis hall), interspersed by skinny alleys that lead up the hillside to who knows where. There are also little restaurants -typically seating no more than a dozen people- next to shrines, old carved-stone, spring-fed foot baths and, of course, the onsen. There are nine onsen in Yudanaka. Each taps a different hot spring in the mountains above - each is said to deliver water with slightly different mineral properties, to treat different types of ailments. Some people buy a commemorative junyoku on which to collect a stamp from each onsen. All guests staying in the member-ryokans are welcome to use the onsen for free (non guests pay a small fee). So foreigners and Japanese both walk the village lane, wearing their yukata and geta, more about which later. These nine public onsen are maintained by a group of village ryokan owners. We stayed in one of these inns called the Shibu Hotel. It was one of the most charming travel experiences of our lives. Management of a ryokan

Wir hatten einen wunderbaren Aufenthalt, das Ryokan liegt sehr schön abgelegen in einem kleinen Bergdorf von wo aus man gut wandern kann und sich in den Onsen entspannen kann. Die Familie hat uns herzlich aufgenommen und sich sehr nett um uns gekümmert, so dass wir uns wie zu Hause gefühlt haben. Wir würden sehr gerne wieder kommen und können es sehr empfehlen hier Zeit zu verbringen! Das Essen war auch wunderbar! Kleiner Tipp: nicht den letzten Bus von Tsubame Onsen zum Hotel zurück verpassen :) Vielen Dank für Alles!