banjobiwan 0 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 hi all, been 2 years since i was on here! just a quick question...could anyone recommend a good/cheap(ish) place to stay a few nights in Yamagata Zao Onsen? we are heading up to Hokkaido from Tokyo via train on the 1st or 2nd of jan and want to stop over/detour to zao along the way for a few days. any info would be greatly appreciated on things to see, eat, visit, or jump off. Link to post Share on other sites
frannyo 2 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Zao is not known for cheap, but Lodge Scole is reasonable http://www.snowjapan.com/e/hotel/yamagata-accommodation.html Link to post Share on other sites
banjobiwan 0 Posted November 25, 2009 Author Share Posted November 25, 2009 yeah i emailed those guys, have not heard anything back yet. well except for them adding me on facebook Link to post Share on other sites
frannyo 2 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Oh dear. But... perhaps they replied and you just didn't get the mail for whatever reason. Tried calling? Whatever, if they are putting you on lists without permission, I'd let SJ know about it. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 I tred to get accomodation at scole around new year and they were fully booked. They said they'd put me on a waiting list but thats no good. Ended up booking Shiga Kogen instead. Any of the other accomodation contacted were exorbitant for over new year Link to post Share on other sites
thursday 1 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 they knew it'll be your B'day Link to post Share on other sites
iiyamadude 6 Posted November 25, 2009 Share Posted November 25, 2009 Accommodation wise, Zao strikes me as being similar to Nozawa, but even more 'Japanese style'. Fantastic plaace if you like Japanese set meals, but very difficult if you don't. Link to post Share on other sites
beowulf 1 Posted November 26, 2009 Share Posted November 26, 2009 Originally Posted By: Foxpuppet hi all, been 2 years since i was on here! just a quick question...could anyone recommend a good/cheap(ish) place to stay a few nights in Yamagata Zao Onsen? we are heading up to Hokkaido from Tokyo via train on the 1st or 2nd of jan and want to stop over/detour to zao along the way for a few days. any info would be greatly appreciated on things to see, eat, visit, or jump off. How well do you speak Japanese? Because I can think of some pretty good places to stay that will not cost too much, but you will probably need a bit of Japanese to make the booking. I stayed at Pension Suis (Swiss) last year and it cost 16,000 yen for one night and two day lift pass. The food was fantastic and the old couple who run the place were lovely. Of course they do not speak any English. This is also a link to a webpage (in Japanese) for the Zao Pension Village. http://zao-pension.gob.jp/ I love Pensions and generally only stay in them when at ski resorts in Japan. Link to post Share on other sites
banjobiwan 0 Posted November 26, 2009 Author Share Posted November 26, 2009 well we dont speak it very well, in fact without our trusty phrase book we would be done for...but as for reading it..no way, no knowledge at all. the first time we went over we stayed in a pension, the couple running it spoke no english, but it was booked by an agent. ever since then we book our own trips to save $ and go longer. i have some japanese friends who may be able to help, but they liuve in oz to. does anyone here care to interpret for us? sure would be appreciated with many thanks! Link to post Share on other sites
SnowJapan Admin SnowJapan 178 Posted November 26, 2009 SnowJapan Admin Share Posted November 26, 2009 There is definitely an increasing interest in Zao but finding places that deal in English does seem to be rather difficult. We are trying to find other places that would like to have more foreign guests. If anyone does know of places that might like to suddenly get lots of English emails (!), please do let us know by email editor@snowjapan.com and we'll look into it. Thanks. Link to post Share on other sites
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