Wrapped up my third stay here. Staff welcomed me back again (though I feel this sometimes has no meaning as I’ve got this from hotels I’ve never been to before). Got an upgrade to king deluxe room (basically larger room) but the extra space was nice for all the gear we dried at night. I persistently checked availability which allowed me to reduce my stay rate from a whopping 195K per night to 60K. The hotel has good cancellation policy where you can cancel up 24 hours before. No Yotei room but it was snowing so much when we were there you couldn’t see it anyway.

Breakfast has been the same as years past, but this time around I enjoyed the crab miso soup (real crab). It seemed like the selection was slightly smaller but spread was still good. I still recommend a 630 breakfast right as they open. Onsen is the same as before in past, but there seems to be more and more tourists who simply do not understand the concept of following the rules (ie silence, not making the onsen a playground for your kids, not bringing drinks to the onsen, and no cell phones for pictures) - but I attribute this to increased Chinese tourism which I’ve seen more and more of the past 8 years.

Staff is still wonderful, and ski valet and boot valet is no exception. Enjoyed the welcome drink for diamonds.

Lift tickets are still super reasonable and the skiing still top notch. The Hilton shuttle works flawlessly to Hirafu still, just show up 10 min before it leaves as the bus gets busy.