ペンション ベルグ Pension Berg — Hotel in Kutchan

Before you book, you should be aware of the serious health risks and dangers associated with using kerosene heaters in unventilated rooms, which many of these rooms are. These heaters emit toxic fumes including carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and other dangerous pollutants that are harmful to your health and can be potentially deadly. Carbon monoxide is no joke - stay at your own risk.

The moment I stepped into our room, even without turning on our heater, I noticed a smell similar to wood polish or leather. It was a chemically smell that I learned later was the smell of kerosene. We tried opening the windows but they were double paned, so even though we could open the inner window, the outer facing window was sealed shut, meaning no fresh air could come into our room. I asked the the front desk about this smell and they came up to investigate but said they couldn't smell anything. They did offer a room change but since they assured me that everything was completely safe (I asked multiple times, as chemical smells usually aren't great for health), we naively believed them. The next morning, the smell was so much stronger and I woke up with an intense throbbing headache, lightheadedness, and nausea. Immediately I went downstairs for fresh air. I now know that those were symptoms consistent with carbon monoxide poisoning from unventilated kerosene heater use.

The next night we took them up on their room change offer and was moved to a different room. This room had a chimney-like tube that connected from the heater to the outside, which meant this kerosene heater was properly ventilated. However, it still smelled whenever we turned on the heater so we ended up keeping it off and sleeping in layers of jackets to stay warm during the below freezing temps at night.

I had no idea about this prior to staying here, but apparently it is quite common in colder parts of Japan to still use kerosene heaters because they are cheap (an old and dangerous tech no longer used in many other parts of the developed world). I didn't learn any of this until I came back and read up on kerosene heaters and their negative health effects. It boggles my mind that a technologically advanced country like Japan would continue to use such dangerous old heating technology. I understand it's cheap, but it's not worth the cost of our health.

This is not an issue specific to Pension Berg and the staff were very friendly and accommodating, but I cannot in good faith recommend this place to stay. It's...

We have a very pleasant experience here in Pension Berg, where we stayed for 3 nights. The hosts are very accomodating and helpful. On our last day, they even offered us a lift going to Hirafu welcome centre (where our pick-up point going to new chitose airport). |The place is so clean (toilets, bathroom, bedroom, etc). Here you can have a taste of Japanese style bedroom. Though the bathrooms is literally shared with other guests, but the guest will patiently wait until you finish taking your bathe.|They provide a healthy breakfast, which was cooked and served by the hosts itself.||Location wise, this place is just a 10 mins walk from the ski area or Grand Hirafu Welcome Centre. 10 mins walk from the Seicomart convenience store. 3 mins walk from Hirafu188 grocery store. Not other than that, if you want to eat ramen to warm up your cold nights, a ramen restaurant is just beside the pension. On top of that, you can buy some Niseko souveniers on the...

I stayed here on my last snowboard trip to Niseko. I absolutely loved staying there because of the proximity to Grand Hirafu and the staff. The staff there are amazing and kind. They always have a smile on their face and was helpful. Breakfast is a home cooked style. Very delicious and looked forward to breakfast each day. The bathrooms and shower rooms are community. I do believe there are a few rooms that do have bathrooms but cost a little more. They have coin laundry available as well as a room to store your gear after hitting the slopes. The shower room has an onsen that I used every morning and evening. The one thing that I didn't like was the price. But everything at Niseko is expensive and when you take in to account how close it is to the life for Grand Hirafu and all the other attractions, it's not that bad. Overall, I love my stay and actually wanted to stay there again, but it was all booked on the days I'll be...