In a sea of westernised properties in Hakuba, the Hotel Oak Forest was a refreshingly typical Japanese hotel. Firstly it was nice that all the staff were Japanese, and that only some of them spoke English (and provided typical friendly Japanese service).

Having an onsen onsite was a huge pro. It wasn’t the most aesthetically beautiful onsen, but it more than did the trick for weary muscles, and having an outdoor onsen is always lovely.

We stayed in a spacious tatami room with ensuite which was fantastic. The room was very well insulated and incredibly quiet. The only minor inadequacy was that there were no hooks to hang jackets or the like, but this is typical of all Japanese tatami rooms. The wifi in the room was also rather intermittent which is difficult when you’re dying to post Facebook photos of deep powder to annoy your friends!

The breakfast buffet was satisfactory and included western and Japanese items such as noodles, miso, yoghurt, fruit, rolls and coffee. It was OK but it was exactly the same everyday – no variations. Luckily we weren’t staying for too long or it might have got rather tedious.

Whilst it was delightfully quiet, the location wasn’t amazing for ready access for the ski resorts unless you had a car. It was a plus that there was a bus stop out the front, but the bus schedules weren’t incredibly frequent. We caught the hotel shuttle into central Echoland in the evenings (Echoland is a smorgasbord of restaurants and bars) and it was very easy to walk home, but the location might not suit families with small children (as the onsite restaurant doesn’t provide a lot of variety).

The upside was that we didn’t have to pay a small fortune for a hotel with proximity to the lifts.
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