Niseko Shirokuma Cottage

A pleasant, comfortable cabin, and small cabins at a reasonable price are hard to find in Hokkaido. Each room has its own toilet. For showering, they provide a ticket to Kira no Yu bathhouse nearby, a few kilometers away. The wood-burning heat system is unusual. If you go out at night, you may need to learn to start the fire yourself. The room isn’t especially clean, though the bed and toilet are fine. The first floor gets to a comfortable temperature, but the second floor is unbearably hot.

We had this lovely cottage to ourselves for the day. The futon had a bear illustration, and the bedroom upstairs was reached by a very steep, ladder-like staircase. Downstairs there’s a kitchen, living room, and a state-of-the-art toilet with a washlet. The kitchen tools need to go back where they belong, and rubbish has to be sorted and put in the bin. Wi-Fi is available, though the signal is weak. It’s close to the national highway, so you can hear some traffic. There’s no air conditioning, and opening the window with the screen down helped with the heat, though bugs could still get through gaps in the screen. The toilet doorknob also seemed prone to coming off. Driving from Hakodate, you need to make a U-turn because of the median, and the steps could scrape a low car. There’s a free shuttle if you arrive by public transport. You can apparently try chopping firewood too, if you reserve ahead.

The room stayed warm even after I got back from snowboarding at night, and the wood stove almost made it too hot. I was in short sleeves indoors the whole time. There’s no bath in the room, but they gave me a hot spring ticket, which turned out to be a nice bonus. The couple running the place were incredibly kind. I’d love to come back next year.

Getting to barbecue was a lot of fun, and the cottage itself felt like a dream, so warm and cozy with its wood stove. The view of Mount Yotei from the window was amazing! 🙌 I was especially happy that they welcomed my cat so warmly. We both got carried away having such a good time, sorry about that! 🙇