Our stay at the Madarao Kogen Hotel was incredibly enjoyable. The service levels were very high, and the concierge staff were incredibly helpful and friendly. It was hard to leave the place!

The hotel wasn’t quite perfectly ski-in ski-out (especially considering the deep powder) considering that the door to/from the ski room is not located on the slopeside of the hotel. Nevertheless, the location was incredibly convenient.

The Madarao Kogen Hotel offers extremely good value for money considering the quality of the accommodation. Another major pro is that the hotel is very family friendly.

The rooms are rather nice. We stayed in a full western room that was very comfortable for 2 guests, but I don’t think we would have wanted to squeeze in 4 guests considering the amount of luggage we had. The view from our hotel room would probably have been very nice, except that it absolutely dumped and dumped with snow whilst we were there, which is much nicer!

The buffet breakfast with both western and Japanese fare was impressive, as was dinner, with a large range of food on offer. It was great to sample lots of food, but for the sake of your waist line and to avoid ground hog day, you may want to only eat here a couple of nights.

The formal Japanese restaurant is another option, and the food there was gorgeous with respect to the aesthetics as well as the taste, but you’ll also want to burn up plenty of calories on the slopes in preparation for this fabulous feast. Otherwise if you want to vary up your dining experience, there are a couple of other Madarao restaurants within easy walking distance.

The bar wasn’t open for après ski time even though the open fire was going, possibly because they wanted to set up for dinner. We just bought inexpensive drinks from the vending machine and gift shop, and the ambience around the fire was lovely nonetheless.

The hotel has very good facilities which makes everything rather convenient. It would be easy not to leave the hotel except to ski or snowboard! The wifi only worked in the common areas (which is pretty typical for a Japanese hotel). The onsen was quite lovely, especially the open air bath with its many rocks, although it wasn’t particularly large.

This is a fabulously friendly hotel!
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