Hoshino Resorts Tomamu Unkai Terrace — Attraction in Shimukappu

I stayed at hoshino tomamu for 3 days 2 nights. The unkai status can be seen from hotel TV channel or hotel website and when I check in around 3pm the unkai possibility was 40%

On the first night I wake up close to 4am and the status was "in the cloud." So I went down to the lobby information to inquire the meaning of "in the cloud" and the answer was maybe will see Unkai.

I couldn't sleep and while I try to read more about this Unkai from TripAdvisor. I happen to refresh the website at around 4:30AM and the status now is Unkai is occurring.

So I manage to take the 4:50AM shuttle to the gondola and I arrived at the top around 5:50AM. Not long after the weather changed. It's foggy at the top and when I checked the status it says Unkai is unstable.

I'm hoping the next day we would be able to see Unkai again and by 3:00pm the forecast say that Unkai possibility is 50% and I'm very excited. We sleep early that night and I wake up at 3:30am and to my surprise that Unkai is occurring status shown on the TV screen. Since the shuttle won't be ready until 4:25AM, we walked to the gondola center and the line was quiet long. The gondola didn't open until 4:30 AM.

We stayed up there until around 7AM...

I will first provide some useful information and then my opinion. There is shuttle bus for each Jr train arrive and departure. Go to the tower and you can check your luggage at the clock room for free. They close at 5pm so if you pickup afte that,you will need to pickup at information. Then they have shuttle bus to resort centre when you take the gondola. Make sure you reserve the shuttle bus back to the Jr station. The bus from Jr to resort doesn't need to be reserved, but the one going back to Jr does. I made the mistake of coming here in winter time at night. Winter time up here is freezing cold. At night time it is dark and if you want to take some good picture like me, you will be disappointed. There isn't much light down the mountain. All you see is darkness and feel is cold. For some reason, they close the gondola before 3pm. That is unbelievable because they totally blocked out the golden hour for photography up there. And they shouldn't do the night gondola from 4.30pm to 6pm. It is a totally rip off and scam. Trust me. Save yourself 2200 yen for a good meal instead. May be 500 yen for the ice village. But please, not 2200 yen for the 10min walk up here in the...

Absolutely worth a visit. Come early to get ahead of crowds, expect long lines of 20-30mins waiting times or more for popular photo spots (e.g. Cloud9) at peak times. Open from 4 to 8 (last gondola up is at 8am, last gondola down is at 9am when it closes). Clouds are there from 6-ish to 7:30-ish before they dissipate and clear up (crowd dies down once clouds clear so quite empty closer to 9). It really depends on the weather. It's free to go up at least once if you're at Hoshino or Club Med (club med is within walking distance to the gondolas, Hoshino needs a bus or you can drive over and park). Soft serve is highly recommended if you have to get something from the pricey menu which is quite limited (limited food options).

Edit: As weather is unpredictable, might take a few morning trips up to Unkai Terrace to be 'above the clouds'. If it's misty at main photo spots, you can try walking up the hike path behind Cloud 9 photo spot to see if you can get above the clouds for...