Mercure Miyagi Zao Resort & Spa — Attraction in Zao

Sendai (仙台市 Sendai-shi, Japanese: [seꜜndai]) is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, the largest city in the Tōhoku region, and the second largest city north of Tokyo. As of 1 August 2017, the city had a population of 1,086,012, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The total area of the city is 786.30 square kilometres (303.59 sq mi).||We arrived yesterday via UA Guam to Sendai airport (3hours 40mins.) Smooth flight.|Had our lunch in the airport 11am with Pork cutlet curry and Omelet rice(Just like what i see in my JDrama Oishi!)|Pass by the JTB tourist desk.Nice lady Ms.Hamada is very accommodating and helped us to know about our hotel,transport and other things (I only searched through tripadvisory, google, asked friends their experience or recommendation and with what UA employees have discount).|To go to our hotel(best choice for our budget and itinerary is Miyagi)|Miyagi ZAO Royal hotel|From Sendai airport, we ride the train(some call it a trolley) it's like LRT in Manila, cleaner, same congestion, cheap ¥700.25minutes from Sendai airport to Sendai station(Ticket is purchase through the machine or walk-in information center at the station).|From Sendai we walked out(insert ticket to exit) and nice Japanese man/passenger ask where to do we need to go because Iain and I are looking around (map,information center) because all signs are in Japanese.He showed us.So walked down the connecting platform to a mall to a elevator to a bus stop for West end of Sendai station.(In the train Iain gave up his seat for older Japanese lady with all her bags from her travel in Korea, Designated seats at the corner is full, first come first serve seat)She was very thankful and we are very thankful for her appreciation and her&chat with her limited english.|We found it! Bus stop 33 (Togatta-Zao Machi- Miyagi)|Hotel have free ride for check-in a part of bus ride(if you inform hotel at least 3days or else you pay ¥1230 per person).Another nice Japanese senior travel group talked to us(make sure w have the right bus,minimal english but they were best, helpful smiling polite and cheerful). Even waited and talked to bus driver for us.(I showed them Guam pictures).|Arrived in the hotel after one hour bus ride(beautiful colors all the way,towns,and comfy seat but the driver didn't show us the luggage bin so we have to put it on our side good thing bus is not full not to take up space for other passenger).| Miyagi ZAO Royal hotel (chain of Daiwa group)|¥10000 per night including buffet breakfast with Foliage window view clean firm beds, small bathroom(heated toilet seat etc.)|Shishedo products etc. Lovely.|Limitef English front desk(one lady have limited english(day-off next day) nice male front desk used google translate as we inquire etc.Very patient and helpful with polite manners.Great service.Hotspring to the excellent level of service.|Taxi (by reservation from hotel to taxi company ¥6000)to go to convenient store(for atm,no yen exchange in hotel no atm in hotel) plus drive us to Falls look out(Full echo line walk drive is closed Nov.2).We later just cancelled taxi because he is not sure if atm in convenient store have yen.|Restaurants in the hotel for dinner(Ramen is served 9pm) good skewer,yakitori,cutlet.(in Japanese restaurant)|They have Chinese restaurant(open 6pm) that serves the best Ramen.Ms.Asako(who also who for bfast buffet) fluent English, accommodating.Helped us with everything and excellent service.Everyone in Japanese and Chinese restaurant in 1st floor. Bicycle rental available per hour rate.|Park and town just a walk away.Pls.explore and exercise, walk, stroll and you will have Falls, Elevated park with Zao view, river and Togatta onsen foot onsen in town.Lots of things to do.To cater to international/foriegn or even local, we hope you have a tour desk for inquiries, free shuttles or with charge to go to tourist destination.More English translations.Thanks Ladies and gentlemen for patient conversing and helping us (little english, phone google translate is very much appreciated.Thank you.)|Most of local business and restaurant outside the hotel are Cash only payment(no credit card no debit card).|Arigato Gozamaizu Zao...

Sendai (仙台市 Sendai-shi, Japanese: [seꜜndai]) is the capital city of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, the largest city in the Tōhoku region, and the second largest city north of Tokyo. As of 1 August 2017, the city had a population of 1,086,012, and is one of Japan's 20 designated cities. The total area of the city is 786.30 square kilometres (303.59 sq mi).||We arrived yesterday via UA Guam to Sendai airport (3hours 40mins.) Smooth flight.|Had our lunch in the airport 11am with Pork cutlet curry and Omelet rice(Just like what i see in my JDrama Oishi!)|Pass by the JTB tourist desk.Nice lady Ms.Hamada is very accommodating and helped us to know about our hotel,transport and other things (I only searched through tripadvisory, google, asked friends their experience or recommendation and with what UA employees have discount).|To go to our hotel(best choice for our budget and itinerary is Miyagi)|Miyagi ZAO Royal hotel|From Sendai airport, we ride the train(some call it a trolley) it's like LRT in Manila, cleaner, same congestion, cheap ¥700.25minutes from Sendai airport to Sendai station(Ticket is purchase through the machine or walk-in information center at the station).|From Sendai we walked out(insert ticket to exit) and nice Japanese man/passenger ask where to do we need to go because Iain and I are looking around (map,information center) because all signs are in Japanese.He showed us.So walked down the connecting platform to a mall to a elevator to a bus stop for West end of Sendai station.(In the train Iain gave up his seat for older Japanese lady with all her bags from her travel in Korea, Designated seats at the corner is full, first come first serve seat)She was very thankful and we are very thankful for her appreciation and her&chat with her limited english.|We found it! Bus stop 33 (Togatta-Zao Machi- Miyagi)|Hotel have free ride for check-in a part of bus ride(if you inform hotel at least 3days or else you pay ¥1230 per person).Another nice Japanese senior travel group talked to us(make sure w have the right bus,minimal english but they were best, helpful smiling polite and cheerful). Even waited and talked to bus driver for us.(I showed them Guam pictures).|Arrived in the hotel after one hour bus ride(beautiful colors all the way,towns,and comfy seat but the driver didn't show us the luggage bin so we have to put it on our side good thing bus is not full not to take up space for other passenger).| Miyagi ZAO Royal hotel (chain of Daiwa group)|¥10000 per night including buffet breakfast with Foliage window view clean firm beds, small bathroom(heated toilet seat etc.)|Shishedo products etc. Lovely.|Limitef English front desk(one lady have limited english(day-off next day) nice male front desk used google translate as we inquire etc.Very patient and helpful with polite manners.Great service.Hotspring to the excellent level of service.|Taxi (by reservation from hotel to taxi company ¥6000)to go to convenient store(for atm,no yen exchange in hotel no atm in hotel) plus drive us to Falls look out(Full echo line walk drive is closed Nov.2).We later just cancelled taxi because he is not sure if atm in convenient store have yen.|Restaurants in the hotel for dinner(Ramen is served 9pm) good skewer,yakitori,cutlet.(in Japanese restaurant)|They have Chinese restaurant(open 6pm) that serves the best Ramen.Ms.Asako(who also who for bfast buffet) fluent English, accommodating.Helped us with everything and excellent service.Everyone in Japanese and Chinese restaurant in 1st floor. Bicycle rental available per hour rate.|Park and town just a walk away.Pls.explore and exercise, walk, stroll and you will have Falls, Elevated park with Zao view, river and Togatta onsen foot onsen in town.Lots of things to do.To cater to international/foriegn or even local, we hope you have a tour desk for inquiries, free shuttles or with charge to go to tourist destination.More English translations.Thanks Ladies and gentlemen for patient conversing and helping us (little english, phone google translate is very much appreciated.Thank you.)|Most of local business and restaurant outside the hotel are Cash only payment(no credit card no debit card).|Arigato Gozamaizu Zao...

We looked on Booking.com for a hotel at Zao Onsen and found this one. This is NOT located at Zao Onsen. It’s on the other side of the mountains, and the road to Zao Onsen is inaccessible in winter. This is Miyagi Zao. You’re a bus ride away from the snow fields at Sumikawa Snow Park and actually getting to the hotel requires a bus ride from Sendai that takes more than an hour.||The hotel is quite a long way from the small village of Togatta Onsen so, unless you have a car, you are restricted to the restaurants and entertainment at the hotel. The hotel is past its glory days- carpets are stained, linen is worn. This is holiday camp- it’s huge! There is an arcade area for the kids, table tennis, karaoke. If you buy the dinner package, you get a buffet with lots of Japanese choices. Don’t think about trying to buy a ticket on the night though- that caused all sorts of problems for us as staff ran around trying to find a supervisor who could tell them what to do with us. There’s a small Izakaya on site where you can buy yakitori etc. not cheap and there’s no English menu, so you may inadvertently do what we did and buy liver on sticks. The non-liver sticks were delicious, though! Breakfast, again, is buffet style with a lot of Japanese choices and a small choice of Western dishes. Food is good but coffee is awful :-)||Hotel staff don’t speak a lot of English- which is fine, but can be a little problematic if you need to book a tour or have something to sort out with your bill. They forgot to charge us for a tour we’d booked and while we were trying to sort it out (choosing to be honest), our bus to Sendai left without us. We had to wait a long hour and a half in the lobby for the next one, which meant we missed our Shinkansen to Tokyo.||It’s not a bad place, just past it’s prime and a fair way from the main attractions. We liked the fact that there were virtually no other foreigners there and we were experiencing real Japan. Coin laundry is a real bonus and the rooms are huge, allowing plenty of space to spread out and...