I stayed at this mountain lodge for the night on the first day of my traverse of the Ushiro-Tateyama Range. The staff were very friendly, and I’d love to stay there again. The views were also absolutely stunning.

The map indicated the presence of water, but I thought it would be better to include a note stating that the water needs to be boiled.

I used the tent site. Since a transport helicopter was scheduled to arrive, part of the flat area was off-limits, so I used the lakeside site instead. It’s possible that the lakeside site isn’t usually open to the public. Since part of the tent site is close to the restrooms and the generator, which isn’t very comfortable, I think it would be great if the lakeside area were open all the time. The view was great—it was absolutely fantastic.

It’s a typical mountain lodge. Even though it was a weekday, it was fully booked, so the six of us were crammed into a 4-tatami-mat room with raised platforms (futons were 60 cm wide). They were considerate enough to group us with three other couples around our age. It can’t be helped, but there’s no bath, and the toilet smells bad. The hamburger steak was good, but we were told before the meal that it was a rotation system and we had to finish within 30 minutes. Since we were instructed to clear our dishes by table, we didn’t want to hold anyone up, so everyone rushed through their food—almost choking as they did so—and finished in less than 10 minutes. As we left the dining hall, I heard staff members say, “That was quick,” and “The pressure over here was intense,” which made me feel uncomfortable—I thought, “We’re supposed to be guests here, but are we treated like livestock?” I wanted to stock up on snacks and Amino Vital at the gift shop, but there was nothing there. The drying room didn’t even have a fan, so my clothes wouldn’t dry.

We had to stay overnight unexpectedly due to bad weather while climbing Mt. Hakuba. The staff treated us very kindly. The bath was great, too. They can also prepare a packed breakfast for early morning departures.

We stayed here as a family (two adults, an elementary school student, and a toddler). Upon arrival, we were assigned a room on the upper level, accessible via a ladder, but since there was a high risk of our toddler falling, we asked if we could switch to a room on the lower level. Although the hotel was fully booked that day and adjustments were necessary, you kindly accommodated our request. Thank you so much for that.

It reminded me of an old mountain cabin. To be honest, sharing a room with six people was a bit of a squeeze. The bathroom was the worst. Can’t something be done about the waste piling up?

Since we used the campground and checked in at the concession stand, the instructions were brief—there was no explanation about the restrooms or returning the tokens—but we didn’t have any particular problems.