Tateyama Murodou Sanso — Attraction in Tateyama

The location is great – 15 minutes’ walk from Murodo terminal, amid fantastic Alpine scenery. But basically it’s a hostel, pretending to be a lodge. The building is made of plywood and put together as cheaply as possible, so there’s no sound barrier at all between you and the rooms next door or the corridor. The rooms are very basic and rather tatty, though clean enough. The futons were also basic and old, but OK. There are no proper pillows, but you can use a spare blanket as a pillow. No tea or coffee in the room, no fridge, no waste basket, no facilities at all. The lavatories and wash basins (cold water only) are shared, and the bath is a communal one which they close at 9 p.m. They do not provide towels.||Service is minimal, and the front desk staff are interested only in reading you the rules, with no attempt to be welcoming or helpful. Everything is set up for the convenience of the staff, not the convenience or comfort of the guests: check out is 9 a.m., the dinner and breakfast times are fixed (dinner stops at 7.30 p.m., and breakfast stops at 7.30 a.m.) There’s no option but to eat in, and here there’s no choice of food at all – it’s the typical rural Japanese attitude of take-it-or-leave-it. The dinner wasn’t dreadful (rice, pickles, raw cabbage, radish and bits of fried pork), but there was nothing on the plate that I’d have chosen to eat.||The somewhat remote location means that shouldn’t expect luxury, but this is pathetic. It cost 19,800 yen (=US$185) for two people for one night. There are several other lodges and one...

The location is great – 15 minutes’ walk from Murodo terminal, amid fantastic Alpine scenery. But basically it’s a hostel, pretending to be a lodge. The building is made of plywood and put together as cheaply as possible, so there’s no sound barrier at all between you and the rooms next door or the corridor. The rooms are very basic and rather tatty, though clean enough. The futons were also basic and old, but OK. There are no proper pillows, but you can use a spare blanket as a pillow. No tea or coffee in the room, no fridge, no waste basket, no facilities at all. The lavatories and wash basins (cold water only) are shared, and the bath is a communal one which they close at 9 p.m. They do not provide towels.||Service is minimal, and the front desk staff are interested only in reading you the rules, with no attempt to be welcoming or helpful. Everything is set up for the convenience of the staff, not the convenience or comfort of the guests: check out is 9 a.m., the dinner and breakfast times are fixed (dinner stops at 7.30 p.m., and breakfast stops at 7.30 a.m.) There’s no option but to eat in, and here there’s no choice of food at all – it’s the typical rural Japanese attitude of take-it-or-leave-it. The dinner wasn’t dreadful (rice, pickles, raw cabbage, radish and bits of fried pork), but there was nothing on the plate that I’d have chosen to eat.||The somewhat remote location means that shouldn’t expect luxury, but this is pathetic. It cost 19,800 yen (=US$185) for two people for one night. There are several other lodges and one...

Perfect location for our Tateyama hike. It's 5.5 km 4 hours return to Mt Oyama summit and return. When we walked to our room, we were greeted with the view of Tateyama mountain range right outside our window. Super impressive ! Be prepared the walls are thin. Fortunately all the guests slept early during our stay.Great service. Receptionist speaks good English. Explained everything and able to address our queries. Wait staff's English is minimal but they tried their best to communicate with us. We were served beef for one of our meals and when I told them I don't take beef, they replaced it with tofu without questions. I asked for a pot of hot water and they were ok for me to bring it to our room. They even offered us coffee after breakfast while we were waiting out for the rain to stop on our last day. The food tasted delicious, some of it we had no idea what we ate as there's no menu for us to translate. The facilities are basic which we are ok with. Yukata, toothbrush, toothpaste and onsen type towel is provided. Don't underestimate this small little towel which dried up my hair and body in minutes. Nice seating out area where we could enjoy beer alfresco after our hike. The hot pool will be better if the water is hotter. It was raining when we checked out, had to lug our luggage with raincoat and umbrella on snowy and uneven stone paths to Murodo Terminal. Not complaining as we did our research and were prepared for it. We'll definitely stay here again if we go...