Every year, I stay at various mountain huts in the Northern Alps several times. Since the pandemic, all the huts have limited occupancy to allow for extra space in each room, but this time at Hakuba Oike Sanso, they were accommodating six people per room. There were no roll-down curtains or partitions, so we were sleeping in the old-fashioned style—with strangers right next to our faces—and we had to be careful even when turning over in bed. I heard there were several tour groups and the lodge was fully booked, but I was surprised at just how crammed it was.

I spent the night in a tent at Hakuba Oike. The campground was well-maintained and had beautiful views, which was great, but the restrooms were absolutely terrible! Even though it’s a clean, standalone restroom facility, every stall was so full of waste that it looked like it was about to overflow. Maybe the staff are too busy with work at the lodge to keep up, but since they’re charging a fee for this service, I really wish they’d at least conduct regular inspections. The camping fee isn’t exactly cheap to begin with, and upon arrival, we were told that the restroom fee was included in the camping fee—but I just can’t accept that. I understand that prices for lodge stays and the like are inevitably rising, but I hope they’ll at least make an effort to provide a response that users can accept.

They cram too much in. It's absolutely terrible. The food is terrible in the morning, too. Dinner portions are small as well. The service is decent.

I injured my leg on the first day of this trip, so on the second day, I had no choice but to give up on continuing the ascent and head back down. On the morning of the second day, a member of the mountain patrol—or someone like that—who was staying at the lodge noticed that I was having trouble walking and offered to help; they applied tape to my leg. Thanks to them, I was able to make it back down. Thank you very much. When I finally went to the hospital, it turned out I had a fracture. Although I managed to make it down, this hike really brought home the dangers of the mountains.

It was a clean and cozy cabin.

Three thousand yen for one night in a tent is expensive enough as it is, but with an additional 2,000 yen for walk-ins and an overtime fee if you don’t pack up by 10:00 a.m., it seems like they’re only interested in making money. The service at check-in wasn’t very good, either. I also found out for the first time when I got there that I had to boil the water. Even though it’s at a lower elevation than Hakuba Sanso, the restrooms at Hakuba Sanso are by far cleaner.