Rausu Daiichi Hotel

The breakfast is part of the typical Japanese hotel experience here, and you'll really need to get used to it. It's a very nice Ryokan.

Prices are reasonable, and the onsen is in great shape even though it's small. The older Japanese-style rooms are well maintained, despite the old and new buildings having different door designs. In this small town, just before winter road closures, building a hotel here is an intriguing choice. It had a cosy public lodge atmosphere, and in winter there seemed to be very few staff around, as we rarely saw them.

The room was clean and the location was great. Dinner was okay, though the service let things down a bit. day-use bathing is available from 1-8 p.m. It's not a bad thing, but if a big group happens to come in, it can get noisy and make it harder to relax. In general, it's a good hotel.

We all slept comfortably, with four futons for our family of four in one room. It's a clean, pleasant Japanese-style hotel. If you're not Japanese, just be aware of the rice pillows. We didn't get to try a meal, unfortunately, but I'd stay here again.