Zao Shiki No Hotel Reviews

We arrived at Mt Zao in the middle of Our Epic Six Week Trip To Japan, during which we stayed in nine different hotels. This room was amongst my favourites. The staff largely didn't speak English and were not helpful. We had a stand off at the restaurant as we didn't understand that we couldn't dine at there without having made a booking far in advance. After this was explained,  there was no apology or suggestions for alternative dining options. There are limited dining options in Zao. We ate at the Soup Curry place one night and a cute sushi joint another night. On the last night we ended up getting an ebiken bento box from the local Larsens as nothing was open. We did book breakfast each morning and that was fantastic. Lots of Japanese and Western options and it seemed like the food had all been prepared onsite. The hotel is very pretty, with a lovely view of the forest from the lobby. There is a common room with free coffee, tea and ice creams. People were pretty friendly in there. The hotel is the furthest from the 'town' but the closest to the ski lift and to the 'sulfurous' onsen. The ski lift is about 50 metres from the hotel and the ride up and down is spectacular. I thought the onsen was top notch. The sulfurous onsen outside has milky water that is supposed to be good for your complexion. It was fun having an onsen with snow all around. We stayed in the Western style room - it was spacious and well appointed. Our little lounge area had a beautiful view of pine trees and lots of snow. There was also a similar view from the luxurious bath tub (but I didn't use that tub as the onsen was so good.) The beds in our room were very hard. Our room also had a massage chair which I used for hours a time. It was a bit of a trek getting to Mt Zao. The hotel staff weren't very helpful with organising buses but they did drop us off at the bus stop early in the morning and we were picked up on our day of arrival. I know that the staff weren't friendly to us because of the language barrier, which is a shame because everyone should enjoy this venue. I would stay here again for sure. Next time we'll book the dinner set. It did smell amazing ! --