Need to know
Rooms
Fifteen suites.
Check–Out
11am, but flexible for a fee. Earliest check-in, 2pm, but flexible for free, if your room’s ready.
Rates
Double rooms from $1005.58 (JPY111,111), excluding tax at 8 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of JPY150.00 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates include breakfast and dinner.
Also
Helping the chef with his foraging is Sato, a septuagenarian who has been studying what is and isn’t safe to eat from the wild since he was 20; he also helps out with hotel flower arrangements from his haul.
Hotel closed
Occasionally in low season.
At the hotel
Free WiFi throughout, spring-water onsen baths, valet parking. In rooms: Apple TV, iPod dock, Bose sound system, Nespresso machine, locally made bath products and underfloor heating.
Our favourite rooms
For a traditional Japanese experience, book a Washitsu room, which come with typical futons, as opposed to Western-style beds. Some villas come with an extra tatami-mat room and can sleep four. The other major dilemma is whether you want to look out to the Hanazono forest or the nearby meadow…
Spa
There’s no spa, but each villa comes with two onsen baths (one inside, one out), filled with the purest, mineral-rich volcanic spring water.
Packing tips
The region is famous for its ski resorts; since it snows every day for six months of the year, thermals will probably come in handy. Don’t forget your ski gear if you want to hit the slopes of Niseko, Japan’s most-prized piste.
Also
The villas have steps and so are not suited to wheelchair users.
Children
Free cots can be provided for under-twos, for three to six-year-olds, it's JPY6,480 a night for stays with breakfast and JPY10,800 a night for breakfast and a futon; daily half kaiseki course and a futon mat are JPY16,200 for seven to 12-year-olds.
Eco‐friendly
Mountain spring water is used to keep the cellars cool and volcanic water heats the hotel in winter.