What People are saying
Sweet, hard-working staff, nice location
dimsumcafeon 14/11/2014 06:57I was very happy to have begun my first trip in Hokkaido at QKamura Shikotsuko.
Reservation/Room//Facilities:
The staff was helpful from when I first made the reservation. The official website for reservation in Japanese (booked directly with the hotel) offered more meal package options than what was on the English and Chinese website (booked through Rakutan and pay upfront), and the staff did their best to accommodate my request to change my package after booking.
Do expect a slight (but acceptable) delay in response, as not everyone there can handle English correspondence. But they do try hard, and there is usually one person with sufficient English ability to help you at the front desk once you're there.
It is one of the few hotels on my trip that have designated non-smoking rooms (rather than offering to use air freshener should you find the smoke smell bothersome), and from the floor plan they handed me (to show me where the room was), the rooms are mostly non-smoking.
I had a western style room, and it was clean and complete with water, snacks, slippers... etc. Very quiet and comfortable for a good night's sleep.
What I thought was really nice, though, was that even if the person helping you does not speak much English, he or she will do the best to understand and respond and help you - in Japanese and body language, rather than reducing the information/assistance to what they could do in English.
The signs in the rooms are all in Japanese. But I was able to "read" them by taking photos of each and go down stairs and ask the front desk what they said.
For example, the large and medium yukata provided in the closet for you to wear to the hotspring (and to dinner if you wish) come in extra large and small as well, you can get them at the front desk.
The water in the room is icy cold from Lake Shikotsu, the northern most ice free lake in Japan.
The guests there were mostly retirees dressed for hiking and bird watching (maybe it's because I was there on a weekday). I was the only non-Japanese speaking guest there one night, and the other night there was one group of 6 friends with a Japanese speaking leader, which would lead me to believe that my experience here (food, service...) was fairly authentically Japanese. There were a few young families with small children as well. The way the hotel staff treat the (elderly) guests remind me of how adult grandchildren treat grandparents they adore and respect, which I thought was very sweet.
The hotspring (on the second floor of the hotel) is basic and indoors, but kept very clean. I took an early morning dip one day and saw the young woman staff come in to clean, organize the shower/beauty products, as well as take a sample of the hotspring water for testing, and everything was done meticulously according to SOP (there clearly was one).
Because of the small bath area, it is fairly quiet and therefore relaxing. The baskets for the yukata and towel come with laminated hand-drawn pictures of local plants to help guests identify/remember which was their basket.
Meals:
I stayed two nights, and each night had a different set meal that was carefully prepared with fresh local ("Flavor Trio of Hokkaido") and seasonal ("Autumn Treasures") ingredients (8 courses and 10 courses, respectively). The staff would go over how to eat the different dishes - nothing complicated but very helpful as I didn't always knew what I was eating.
The ingredients were clearly picked for freshness, and prepared carefully, skillfully yet simply to highlight their natural, delicate taste/texture. I wrote looooong notes to my family about the experience (which I will spare you all here, as it is long, and torturous for those who can only read about but not taste it).
The set meals comes with a menu in Japanese, and I asked the servers (who also work as receptionists, bus boys, gift shop people... they work hard!) to write down the specific names if I really wanted to know and look it up later.
I guess because I seemed really interested in the food, the servers would make an effort to point out dishes in my set meal that are common/popular in Japanese homes.
One staff member/server in particular would ask me how my day went, but in a very specific way based on what I told him I was planning to do that morning (he was at the front desk in the morning, and then serving dinner at night). I was pleasantly surprised and thought it was really nice.
The first night I was stuffed, because I also had a big lunch. The second day I skipped lunch after a full breakfast (buffet style, and everything was clearly labeled for people concerned with food allergies), and the amount of dinner was perfect (soup, dessert, water/tea/coffee are buffet style).
Location:
Don't be mislead by the map that makes this hotel look "out of the way".
If you can handle walking up and down the hill, this hotel is actually well within walking distance to the downtown touristy areas - but far enough out of the way that no bus loads of tourists come even close to it.
On the map it looks far from downtown, and the drive from downtown to the hotel (the shuttle picked me up right on time) made walking seem impossible - but that was because the car couldn't take the walking path. It is literally a 5-minute walk (up or down hill) to the downtown area. Just make sure you do this while there is still daylight. The path is not lit. And no handrails. But well paved and maintained. Could be considered steep for some, and difficult for those with knee problems.
If you need handrail for the hill, on the other side of the hotel there is a path with metal stairs. It's a bit farther to downtown but a pleasant walk nevertheless.
I put out the "ecocoro" sign (for them not to make up the room to conserve energy and resources), and came back to a new pitcher of fresh icy water, new snacks, new towels and yukata neatly packed in a bag in front of my door. That was nice and a bit different than I'm used to. :)
Overall, I had a wonderfully relaxing time at QKamura Shikotsuko. The staff was polite and personal, the location was just far enough to be away from the crowds but very close to everything, the meals were wonderful feasts of local ingredients. The hotel was clean and comfortable. I couldn't have asked for a better way to start my first trip to Hokkaido.
Language note: The majority of Qkamura's guests are Japanese-speaking. Knowing some basic, daily vocabulary words in Japanese helps. Keep your English sentences short and simple when making requests/asking questions. I carry a notebook where I can ask them to write down names of places/things - I also use the notebook to draw things in case I can't communicate with words.