Akakura Onsen Spa Resort Hotel Daimaru

We took our family group of 9 to Akakura and chose to stay at Daimaru. After reading a few not too positive reviews, we were thrilled to see how incorrect they were. Yes, Japanese hotels at this price are not 5-star Australian hotels - but who cares when it's the snow you came for. We cared about enough space not to feel cramped (big tick), warm rooms (tick), Internet (some rooms better than others at different times), ski/board storage (tick), filling breakfast included (tick), onsen (big tick), close to the slopes (big tick). The Japanese style rooms were delightful and huge, with all the tea making facilities (Japanese style) - and on top of that you get a whole other room with Western beds in it, as well as your own bathroom (and use of the large onsens of course). Yes, the Western bedroom section decor is old-fashioned, no doubt about it, but it is clean, warm and spacious. Some people's concerns about noisy snow ploughs outside the windows at night are true - you came for snow - if you want to get to the snow in the morning, they need to plough the roads so you can walk there. Snow ploughs are noisy machines, and the more snow, the longer they work. Answer - stay at a hotel far from the slopes where there is no snow outside, or - do what we all did - bring earplugs and get a perfect night sleep - then you just walk a few mins across the ploughed roads to the snow fields the next day, grateful for the work the snow ploughs did. My only two warnings are to bring an eye mask, as the (beautiful) rice paper window/blinds Japanese houses have let in a lot of light at night, and be aware that this hotel only has Japanese buckwheat pillows - which are very hard. We all adapted spare doonas, clothes, futon mattresses over them to get more comfortable 'pillows'. We also found the beds very firm, and we all put futon quilts over the Western mattresses - then we were all comfortable. The top down doonas are so thick, like clouds, though. The onsens in this hotel are large and almost the best part of the holiday (other than the wonderful snow on the mountains). The hotel itself is a 2 minute walk from the first downtown restaurants and shops. It's a wonderfully convenient place to stay to access both Akakura Onsen resort and Akakura Kanko resort, and the free pink town bus stops outside the door if you want to access ski resorts further afield - it will drop you at the downtown bus stop to catch other buses.

Daimaru was fantastic! Definitely the highlight of my trip to Japan and would recommend to anyone travelling to the snow. Best parts about the hotel: - Friendly staff who are always ready to help - buffet breakfast which is a mix of Western and Eastern cuisine. Perfect to keep you going all day on the mountain - Large comfortable rooms, ours even had a traditional Japanese tea room! - Great location in town near restaurants and bars - Space to store snow gear - But the best best best part of the hotel was the onsen! It was my first time using one of these and I will definitely be planning on coming back to myoko and staying here simply with the main purpose to visit the onsen. Thanks to all the hotel staff, I had an amazing stay and will try to get back asap!

Very happy with the service at daimaru all the staff were very helpful and friendly. The western style room that we stayed in had a traditional tea room and the beds were extremely comfortable. The onsen was also excellent and a great way to wind down after a day of snowboarding. The included breakfast was very satisfying also