Semboku Hotels with Parking

The hotel is new and clean. Although the room is small and there is no breakfast restaurant, the service staff are enthusiastic and friendly. The location is excellent, in the center of Kakunodate, near Samurai House, Hinoki Uchigawa and local specialty restaurants. It was a pleasant stay experience!

As luxurious as one can expect. Beautiful place in a secluded natural environment with lavish service and delicious food. The bath are very well prepared and the staff is extremely kind and attentive. It is a hard ask but it would be nice to have some western options at breakfast. But of course this is a Japanese traditional inn yet these options would feel even more luxurious. Some of the decoration feels a bit either dated, kitsch or not being harmonious, I think they need a redesign of the furnitures are it looks more like an assemblage than a harmonious selection of decoration and furnitures. It’s a little on the weird side even sometimes! But the bedding is exceptional. You will have a great sleep at this stay!

During winter, the road for the last 800 meters before reaching the hotel is closed, and you must walk in. Guests need to park at Okama Onsen first. Before arrival, you are required to inform the hotel of your check-in time so that a staff member can guide you on foot to the property. The staff will help carry your luggage, but if you have many bags, it’s best to inform them in advance. The highlight of this stay is definitely the walk to the hotel. You walk deep into the forest along towering walls of snow on both sides, and eventually discover the onsen hidden in the woods. It feels truly special and secluded. The lobby area is not very large, and the number of staff is quite limited, but overall the service was very good. Dinner was served at a counter bar, and the chef was extremely friendly and spoke good English. The receptionist at the lobby, who is from Taiwan, speaks English, Chinese, and Japanese fluently. She explained everything clearly, helped carry our luggage on the way out, and even assisted with clearing snow off our car. Personally, I found the public onsen area to be a bit disappointing. The floor was icy and slippery, which felt somewhat unsafe. However, the private onsen in the room was excellent — very private, spacious for an in-room bath, with a beautiful view and wonderfully fragrant mineral water. The room itself was spacious, quiet, and peaceful. Mobile signal does not work inside the hotel, but the hotel provides Wi-Fi, which was stable and fast. Both breakfast and dinner were very good, and the hotel responded to emails and accommodated our special dietary requests, which we really appreciated. The only regret was that the snow was extremely deep during our visit, making it hard to fully see and imagine the surrounding scenery.

Very nice experience. The cafe has a warm and cozy ambience. The room is unique too with nice lakeview. The meals are special too. It is better to order meals during this period as you cannot find food elsewhere easily. It’s strongly recommended to visit the Lake Tazawa. The water is so calm and clear and clean.

I enjoyed the moment while staying here a lot, the price is so cheap compared to what I got, big room, dinner and breakfast, private bath and public bath access. I believe if you enjoy drinking Sake you will love the bar

From the moment we walked in the door to the morning we left we were made to feel completely at home and welcomed like old friends. Everything was so beautifully presented and we slept so well. Receiving tickets to the local Onsen was a lovely surprise. If you decide to only do the breakfast plan we highly recommend making reservations for dinner in local restaurants asap after you arrive as they fill up very quickly. Breakfast at the hotel restaurant was attention to detail in presentation and completely delicious 😋. Highly recommended and would definitely love to stay again in a different season to see everything in a different light.

Apologies for the rather low score on service but as this is an unmanned hotel, and I had no direct experience of utilising the help line, I could not rate any higher; I did bump into the cleaning ladies, who are doing an excellent job, on my early morning departure, and they were most kind. The hotel is right next to the train station and has its own storage lockers as well as a beautifully maintained lobby with excellent amenities, including vending machines and freely available teas and coffee. The room was well appointed and clean and there was no noise, as expected in a more rural area. The day before check-in, one will receive an email and will be asked to fill out a pre-check in procedure which will produce a QR code necessary when actually checking in at the machines upon arrival-there are no staff on site. This proved seamless for myself, but may be somewhat perplexing or frustrating for older folks or those, like myself, who are not so technologically literate. There is a help button for those who may need it. I was delighted to find that there are coin operated washing/drying machines available. Nearby, there are cafes and bakeries and everything worth seeing is within manageable walking distance. Walking a little further will bring one to some lovely shrines at the end of the town and on the opposite end a beautiful view overlooking the town and the cherry blossom lined river. Having missed cherry blossom season by a few weeks, the view at both sunrise and sunset was worn the extra steps. Do try the local udon, the set pictured was from Machiya Hall and was most delicious.

If you have time to go to Tianze Lake, it is recommended to choose this one. The location is right by the lake. The windows of the lake room are very large. You can see the whole lake view and enter the eye. Don't want the beauty. It is just that the traffic is slightly inconvenient and you need to take the round-the-hu bus at Tamako JR Station to get there, but the beauty of the lake view can offset all the inconvenience. The French cuisine for dinner is very delicious and exquisite.

The room can put up to four floors. The area is still very good. The wet and dry separation. The hot spring is separated by men and women. You can also come to the room at night. The room is also very clean.

Simple accommodation, not very cost-effective, and the lady boss is pretty nice. But maybe I have a not-so-friendly dog. The smell of dog hits my nostrils as soon as I walk in, which is a bit unbearable. Now they no longer give hot spring coupons, but the store has built a simple shower room themselves. You still have to walk outside the house. It is very dark and inconvenient, and there is no place to put clothes.