Shizu Hills Hotel

Lovely views here, and such a relaxing, beautiful place.

A quiet place.

The location is the best thing about this hotel, which sits inside a golf course and is about two hours from central Tokyo. Some of the building, especially the corridors, shows its age, but the rooms, pool, cafe, and other main areas have been renovated beautifully in a modern style. The plumbing is admittedly a bit old, though it hasn’t been inconvenient. Meals are basically only available at the hotel, and there aren’t good restaurants nearby, which is a downside.

The room itself was spacious and very clean after renovation, with wide windows, a high ceiling, a view of the golf course, and a clean tray and bath. The building is old, and there’s a large public bath open only in the evening. I stayed overnight on Sunday, June 15, 2025, in Room 212, just off the second-floor elevator, before playing golf at Shizu Hills Country Club the next day. I checked in during the afternoon and unpacked, then did some practice at the Shizu Hills Country Club driving range. After bathing and showering in the hotel’s large public bath, I rested in my room. There’s a cafe on the first floor, where I had a dinner reservation for 6 PM. I went back to my room around 8 PM and went to bed around 10. Around 11:30 PM, a little after I’d fallen asleep, the extension phone in my room rang. I wondered why it would be ringing in the middle of the night and picked up after about two rings. There was no voice, just a buzzing sound like a bad connection. I listened for about ten seconds, wondering what kind of call it was. I was about to shrug it off and go back to sleep when I heard a phone ringing outside my room. I opened the door, thinking, “No way,” and saw the phone in front of the elevator ringing. It seemed strange, so I went back for my smartphone to record it, but the hallway phone stopped just as I raised the phone to film. I felt uneasy and looked around for signs of anyone. About ten seconds later, the phone in Room 211 next door rang for around 30 seconds, then stopped. I went to the door, checked the sound, and recorded a video. It seemed like nobody was staying there. Back in Room 212, I called extension 150 for the hotel’s night duty officer. He suggested a guest might have dialed the extension by mistake. I asked whether multiple groups were staying there, and he said yes. Still, if someone had made a mistake, I thought they would have said so. I wanted to see if any guests were awake, so I went outside and around to the golf course side of the hotel, where the pool is, to look for lit windows. Mine seemed to be the only room with its lights on. I went straight to the front desk, where the night duty officer came out. He said something seemed odd and asked me to go with him to check the back rooms on the second floor for a phone that might be ringing. Then the phone in front of the second-floor elevator rang again. It was keeping me awake, so I asked him to unplug it. As they were doing that, the phone in Room 211 rang again. This time it was answered after about five rings. My wife was waiting in our room, and she told me the phone in Room 212 rang again too. I went back, and it stopped. About a minute later, as I sat beside it, it rang again. I answered after one ring. There was a hold tone, a strange switching sound, then another hold tone. I listened for a while and hung up. I also had the night duty officer listen to it. I still felt uneasy, but there wasn’t much else I could do. I asked for the phone outside the second-floor elevator to stay unplugged, unplugged the phone in Room 212, and went to sleep. I woke at 6 AM, reconnected the extension phone, and stayed until about 7 AM. No calls came through after that. I can think of three possibilities: a phone system fault, a prank or wrong number from a guest, or something strange. The system was a very old Oki Electric extension phone system, and I wondered if it could have been an error in the wake-up call system. If it keeps logs, I’d like them to check them. The calls seemed to ring on different lines, and the sounds after answering weren’t consistent. If it was a prank, I can’t understand the motive. Hold music started as soon as I answered the first call, so I don’t think a person could have put it on hold that quickly. These days, I think hotel staff are the only ones who use extension phones. If someone was staying early, I’d expect hardly anyone to be awake then apart from a group or groups.