Kussharo Prince Hotel

We stayed overnight on the first day of the tour. All rooms face Lake Kussharo and we saw a beautiful sunrise. There is a hot spring, but the boiler is out of order. A one-drink service was included for dinner. Rooms are equipped with shower only. Dinner and breakfast were both buffet and delicious with as much as you like. It was fun to compare three kinds of milk for breakfast. I requested a quiet non-smoking room, a purifier with humidifier, a desk lamp and an extension cord beforehand, but they replied immediately and all the equipment was provided in the room. I got a thank you email back soon and it was a good hotel.

After a beautiful drive through the mountains, we made our way to Lake Kussharo to stay at the Prince Hotel. With not much choice in this area, this hotel is large enough to handle large tour groups and individual travel. Check in was smooth and the staff were really helpful and spoke English. The Hotel: I think this hotel was quite something in its prime - which I think was some time in the 1980s to be fair. The decor is quite old, and the open space and high ceilings make it appear brighter than the brown and beige decor make it. The first floor has the huge gymnasium sized dining hall, the basement has a shop and games area. Games are all chargeable and we thought 1,000 Yen for 1 hour of table tennis is pretty steep! The Room: We had a lake view room with twin beds. It was a good size and the bathroom was also large. The beds were adequate and we slept ok but the blankets needed an upgrade. It was a comfortable stay for 1 night but I think any longer would be too much. As there’s very little choice around the hotel and unless you’re driving and willing to venture quite far out for food, you’ll need to use the hotel restaurant. We decided that the buffet was quite overpriced so elected for the à la carte. For this though, there was only a choice of three dishes. However, the breakfast choice was excellent and the buffet was very good. Overall, it was a comfortable night stay and a good location to wake up to see the lake in the morning. Worth it only for an overnight visit.

I've been here before, for lunch on tour. The curry we had in the glass restaurant was very good. I always liked the curry at Prince Hotel. This time, it was nice to be able to stay on the tour, but it was a lakeside room with a lake view, but since it was on the third floor, the trees by the lake didn't show the lake at all. In the case of tours, there are a lot of places outside the room, but the others may be better because there were a lot of places on the second floor, and there is a public bath on the third floor, so it was nice to be close to the room. The rooms have not changed for decades to the point of feeling nostalgic for the layout that is common at Prince Hotel. The springs on the lower bat mats in particular are either fully extended or not comfortable enough for both Kushiro Prince and I who stayed the next day. I think it's about time I replaced it with a sofa bed. Dinner was buffet style, but it was delicious because it was Prince Hotel food. It just felt like there were too many kinds of Japanese, Western and Chinese dishes. The hall is so large that it can be a bit cumbersome to order beer from the drinks bar. Breakfast is served in the same buffet style and is very crowded when the tour departs at the same time. Having only one lane is a bit deadly time consuming. The large public bath did not feel rustic, but the water was good. The lakeside access is good, so you can enjoy the view of Lake Kussharo.