Ikenohira Hotel

Ikenotaira Hotel is a nature-surrounded hotel right by Lake Shirakaba. Its biggest charm is the guest rooms: beyond standard Japanese-Western rooms, Western rooms, and trendy Japanese-modern rooms, it offers many themed rooms—such as “A room for babies and moms” stocked with essentials for infant life, rooms themed after popular anime (e.g., “Healingood♡Precure” and “Kamen Rider Saber”), a “Teddy Bear Room” surrounded by teddy bears, and the “Yuji DIY Pre-Camp Room,” produced by TV personality Yuji, where you can experience camping inside the room—great for families with children or first-time campers. The baths are also a highlight, including a massive 100-tatami-size mixed-gender open-air bath that families and couples can enjoy together, plus marble and hinoki baths. The starry sky seen from the open-air bath at 1,450 m elevation is especially recommended. For overnight guests, parking is free. For day visitors, parking is free on weekdays outside the summer season, and even on weekends/holidays and in summer it costs 1,000 yen per day.