Shibu Hotel

We are very impressed with the hotel service.The hotel makes travel convenient and smooth.There are pick-up and drop-off fromYudanaka Station to the hotel and drop-off at Monkey onsen.The hotel is in the good location,in the heart of Shibu Onsen, beutiful view of the mountian and river in front.The beer, white and red wine in the refrigerator in the room are free.The onsen is not very big but clean.Dinner and breakfast are fresh and delicious. Shibu Hotel is a very good hotel,worth staying.

Mein Partner und ich waren im Februar 2024 hier, um die Schneeaffen zu sehen. Der Service war fantastisch, insbesondere der Shuttleservice vom Bahnhof und zum Schneeaffenpark. Das Essen war authentisch japanisch, unglaublich gut gemacht. Wir würden es uneingeschränkt weiterempfehlen. Vielen Dank!

Wonderful experience staying here. Akiyoshi and his family and staff made us feel very welcome. The room was lovely, and the private onsen excellent. We are vegan, and the chef prepared fantastic meals for us. Our server (wish I could remember his name) was so friendly and helpful. Highly recommended.

Superb onsen experience. Our room was very clean with comfortable tatami/futon. Outdoor and indoor onsen was very pleasant as were the private onsen. Kaiseki was delicious and filling. Most of all staff and owners were very welcoming and kind. Will come back.

This is the sixth time I have stayed here and it did not disappoint. The care demonstrated by Mr and Mrs Yamada left no need of the traveller unanswered. The rooms have recently been renovated and have very simple but very classy appointments. Beds are large and comfortable. Views of the stream are excellent. Yukata and geta allow for an authentic experience in the backstreets of onsen. Japanese food in general rarely disappoints but I’ve never had a better kaiseki dinner or their breakfast. Courtesy shuttle to and from station and Monkey Park is icing on the cake. I cannot fault Shibu Hotel

Fantastic stay at a beautiful family run Ryokan. Exceptional hospitality and the most amazing dinner and breakfast. We wanted to experience an old onsen town and were very happy with our choice in Yudanaka. They also offer a free shuttle to the nearby snow monkey park which was wonderful. I would highly recommend this lovely town and particularly Shibu hotel. I think it was very good value for money for the stay which not only included dinner and breakfast but also free drinks in the minibar and in the lobby area.

The staff was amazing. Very friendly and professional. I especially like the fact that they picked us up from our bus stop and took us to Snow monkey River. Thereafter, we called them, and they picked us up and took us to the hotel. The private onsen was amazing. I enjoyed it. The 13 course meal was exceptional and tasty This is a must place hotel to be at because they make the whole transition from the bus stop to their place very easy. There is a couple that runs the place and they are helpful, professional, and beautiful!!!

If you plan to ski in Shiga Kogen and you’re wondering where to stay, you have to answer a first basic question: do you stay in a contemporary hotel up on the slopes, or down in the valley in a traditional Japanese ryokan with an onsen fed by natural hot springs? This review is a recommendation to go for the ryokan experience, and specifically for the Shibu Hotel in the village of Yudanaka. To understand the Shibu’s charms I’m prefacing my comments with what I think is important context and useful info. Shiga Kogen is a vast ski area of 18 interlinked resorts. The resorts are located on the slopes of the mountains at about 1400 meters (4600 ft). Many appear to have been built in the 1990s for the Nagano olympics. Many of them are ski in/out. We did not visit any of them, but as best we could tell there are few if any restaurants, bars or convenience stores that aren’t located inside a hotel. These are resorts. The resort experience is probably great. There are so many lifts and gondolas that we literally did not have to wait in line once. There are so many trails that we never felt crowded. There were even times we had an entire piste to ourselves from the summit at 2000 meters to the gondola station below. In five days skiing we managed to explore a fraction of the Shiga area. It’s fabulous. If all you want to do is shred, ski out at 8:30 and ski back in at 4:30, this is the place to do it. You can ski till you drop. But if you also want a bit of the Japanese cultural experience, you should stay in Yudanaka, an ancient little village built around the Shibu Onsen hot baths whose history goes back more than a thousand years to when it was the place for a bath and a rest for pilgrims on their way to the Zenkoji Temple. Yudanaka is the last stop on the Nagano Dentetsu electric rail line. The main village lane is a charming narrow street cobbled with small pavers and lined by traditional wooden ryokan and small stores (one converted to a free public table tennis hall), interspersed by skinny alleys that lead up the hillside to who knows where. There are also little restaurants -typically seating no more than a dozen people- next to shrines, old carved-stone, spring-fed foot baths and, of course, the onsen. There are nine onsen in Yudanaka. Each taps a different hot spring in the mountains above - each is said to deliver water with slightly different mineral properties, to treat different types of ailments. Some people buy a commemorative junyoku on which to collect a stamp from each onsen. All guests staying in the member-ryokans are welcome to use the onsen for free (non guests pay a small fee). So foreigners and Japanese both walk the village lane, wearing their yukata and geta, more about which later. These nine public onsen are maintained by a group of village ryokan owners. We stayed in one of these inns called the Shibu Hotel. It was one of the most charming travel experiences of our lives. Management of a ryokan

We had the best time at the Shibu Hotel! The staff was so friendly and went above and beyond to accommodate us and make us feel welcome in their little slice of paradise. Our room was beautiful! We were given rides to and from the train station, rides to and from snow monkey park, two great meals, and friendly helpful service at every juncture. The hotel’s private and public onsen’s are great but don’t miss out on the public bath house tour!!! The hotel perfectly placed in the middle of the public bath house tour and will give you a map and a key to access each little bath. One of the best experiences of our entire Japan trip (or any trip). I would also pick one night to and try one of the local restaurants. We loved our smokey bar and home closing experience at a place down the road called Chokkun Izakaya.