Kangetsuen — Hotel in Otofuke

We booked a room with open air onsen bath and buffet dinner included. We were given a dinner time of 7.30pm although it was a supposed to be a buffet till 9pm. When we went to the restaurant, items were being kept already and one item in particular, bread with melted cheese prepared "live" was closed already with a sign saying demo till 7.30pm! Popular items were not at all replenished and by 8pm staff were keeping ladles and serving spoons! We were naturally unhappy and went to the front desk to ask to speak to the manager. "Manager" appeared and conveniently told us he didn't understand/speak English. He was rude, indifferent, ignoring us (he once walked away to answer a phone call), and generally was not interested. It was an eye opener considering the Japanese population is generally a very polite one. We pointed out to his junior staff who was translating that we did not pick that particular 7.30pm dinner time. No apology whatsoever. He continued to ignore us and in the end he asked his junior staff translating to tell us they will prepare a "local specialty" for us tomorrow. We got nothing of the kind. Upon checking out the next day they fobbed us off with a few packets of cheap bath salts!! ||Breakfast again was a big disappointment. Not much choices available and no replenishing of popular items and they started keeping stuff early. ||NOT worth the money at all. Take your money elsewhere. A disgrace to Hokkaido with their...

One of the most impeccably clean room that I have seen, Kangetsuen makes for a tranquil onsen vacay stay – even if it is just for one night. I stayed in a regular Japanese room that was lined with soft tatami. The room looks spacious enough for three people to sleep comfortably in with thick futon mattress stored away in a hidden cupboard. I love that how the room was compartmentalise with the toilets kept away from view from a sliding door. ||||The bathtub is too small to soak in but this is an onsen hotel, so all the soaking should be done in the onsen (they are a sprawling indoor hot spring with Jacuzzi corners and an outdoor onsen!) The futon mattress was thoughtfully laid-out while I was having dinner at the hotel’s restaurant (one would be too drunk to do so after copious amount of beer at dinner). From the window, you can get sweeping views of the Tokachi river, which is simply breath-taking. Make time for the breakfast buffet, which features a mix of Japanese and Western breakfast items that are all well-cooked and has a good selection of ingredients. My favourite items are the marinated seaweed, salted salmon, baked sweet potato and tamogo, which went beautifully with the yam porridge. Place the food in a small buffet platter, which is perfect for preventing over-eating. This is the place to enjoy the serenity of Tokachi’s renowned...

I really enjoyed this onsen hotel. Perhaps my favourite of the four we stayed in Hokkaido. More of a four star than the three star google suggests. Perhaps not super luxurious, but they seemed to do exceed my expectations for everything. Staff were genuinely friendly, rooms were spacious and modern amd had nice amenities like a fancy tea set which included herbal tea. Dinner and breakfast had good varieties and items were particularly tasty. They also had Hokkaido wine which I quite liked (after trying some elsewhere that were not to my taste). Onsen didn't have dozens and dozens of baths like some places , but had a very nice outdoor one, and a nice cold one, which is what I hope for. A nice bonus was they give you a bus ticket for the way back. The busses from Ohibiri station are not super frequent, but the bus literally pulls up to the front door of the hotel, so it was...