Kyu-Karuizawa Hotel Shinonome

We visited Karuizawa in the winter and stayed at the Shinonome Salon. It's only about a 10 minute brisk walk from the Karuizawa shinkansen station along pavements so easy to pull your luggage along with you. The name is confusing but I guess they wanted to call their hotel a saloon but ended up spelling it like a hairdresser. Check-in was smooth and without incident. We arrived late in the evening and although only one person was on duty they did expect us. Our booking.com form was printed out ready for our check-in. There are no elevators in this hotel so you have to lug your baggage up the stairs yourself. The old man who I think is resident there tried to help but he struggled with our heavy suitcases. If you're not strong and your baggage is heavy you might want to request the bottom floor. One annoying feature of the hotel is that you cannot wear your own shoes past the lobby area. You need to switch out of your shoes and place them in the provided lockers and wear the provided slip-ons instead. Annoying but I can live with it. The rooms are small and the toilet tiny. But they are clean. No rollaways for a third person possible in this room. The two beds were small singles. I notice chips on all furniture in the room probably caused by suitcases hitting the furniture given the tight space available. While not pretty to look at it didn't take away from the cleanliness in general. The toilet has a japanese style bathtub which is deep and requires a big step over. Anyone with disabilities might find it a bit difficult. I guess the tub acts as a makeshift onsen. The room includes amenities but I recommend you bring your own soap and shampoo. Hotel amenities in Japan are micro sized and barely adequate and are just a token gesture. The room has a heater and kept the room warm but all the switches were in Japanese. I did figure out how to adjust the temperature eventually. Breakfast was good and adequate even for the largest of appetites and I recommend you include this in your stay. My android phone was able to pick up Wifi in the room but not Apple iPhones. They did say at check-in Wifi was available only in the lobby area. Overall a decent comfortable stay and will consider staying again in future.

Room is clean with some wear and tear in the furniture. We couldn't get a room with the loft so the staff arranged for an extra sofa bed, which a futon could be laid. The blanket was really thick and the pillow was a little too hard for my liking. Interesting point was that the shampoo and body soap in the bathroom was not in the usual dispenser, but was given in small packets, which was not sufficient for my family. The breakfast was specially prepared for individuals, with scrambled eggs, sausages, salad, OJ, bread buns with butter. It was a really quiet accommodation.

It was raining cats and dogs when we arrived at hotel and my friend was totally wet. Mr. Kamura Tetsuya was so nice that he gave us towels and hair dryer right away. He speaks fluent English and he looked for all relevant information for us whenever we had questions! We don't know any Japanese and he prepared all things (map, time table, route, etc.) in English and Japanese so we can ask others if needed. We would definitely stay here again when we visit this lovely place =)