Kawahiro — Hotel in Nozawaonsen

Kawahiro could not be closer to the Nagasaka Gondola (a few metres?).Definitely ski in and ski out and it made it very easy for our family to come in from the slopes whenever and head out skiing multiple times throughout the day if needed.||||It is further from the main street for restaurant dinners though and the walk back up is steep-ish and can feel long if it is snowing heavily and you are trudging up with a full belly. We have tried the onsite restaurant set dinner (hot pot) and it was yummy but probably better for adults who can appreciate the large and complicated array of dishes, rather than kids (we asked for the more basic katsu don for the boys). Japanese breakfast is included (we also had cornflakes and milk with ours - possibly only included for foreigners?), which was a great novelty at the start but there were days when we probably just felt like toast! :)||||The place is very traditional Japanese with tatami mats that can take some getting used to if you prefer softer beds. There is a clean and spacious onsen on site and while we also explored the village onsens, the onsite onsen (open from 4-10pm) made it very convenient if we didn't feel like heading out till dinner.||||If you are looking for a ski lodge then this is not the place for you as other than the onsen and a smoking area on the ground floor, there is really no common areas to hang out in other than your actual room. Our room was a relatively spacious one for our family of 5 on the 3rd floor (the stairs will keep you fit!). Bathrooms are shared and the staff will give you a daily supply of hot water thermos for making tea etc.||||Wifi is available in the room as well as...

The rooms are basic and if you're not used to sleeping on futon/tatami, the bed is HARD! And this hotel will not suit those who insist on private facilities because the toilets are shared (like a hostel) as is the onsen (obviously).||||The onsens are lovely and clean (and not super-hot like other onsens, so you can actually get in and sit for a while), and as other reviewers have said, it's so close to the lift / ticket / ski hire outlets you can practically roll there.||||The room we had was sizeable: we are a family of five, and while I wouldn't say we had "plenty" of room, we certainly had enough. If you were 4 or less, you would find it quite roomy (in a Japanese sense). ||||We tended to go into the village for dinner, but the breakfasts were good.||||We sometimes found it hard to find the owners to help us, but once we worked out that if reception wasn't manned they were usually in the kitchen, we were all set.||||An earlier reviewer said the hotel didn't have wifi, but they must have changed this, as we had free wifi available in the rooms when we were there.||||There's a good pub / café next door which serves very decent coffee from 8am and bar until late.||||The only real downside to staying here was that there was limited common area for socialising in. We were travelling with 3 families, and there was only a small seating area in the lobby (which was often taken up by heavy smokers) and you had to ask for the heater to be put on there if you wanted to sit and, say, have a...

we took the chuo-taxi (shared mini-van) from narita airport to the hotel. it took almost 6 hours with all stops and costed 12400/pers. but it was door to door service and very convenient with all our luggage.||Kawahiro was at first a cultural shock, as we have never stayed in this type of accomodation before. But at the end, we liked it so much, we didnt want to leave!||at the entrance you change in to slippers to take your own shoes to shoe-storage. after that you change in to other slippers to walk to your room, and leave the slippers outside your door. third slippers you will find when entering the toilet, there you change in to the toilet-slippers!||the room was quite large for a couple. the matresses and plankets where in the closet and we made the bed our selves. we left the bed every day on the floor and we yet had enough space.||we were on the second floor and there was only 3 rooms, so never had to queue to te toilet.||onsen was great and again at ladies side i was every day alone.||owners where really helpfull and spoke enough english.||they helped us with ski tickets, rentals, monkey tour, information and on top, on our departure, when it was snowing, they gave us a free lift to the bus station. that we really appreciate, since we had quite a lot of luggagge.||the location was very good. right next to the gondola station. walk to to main street took 5-7 min and back about 10min (steep uphill+...