Minakami Kogen Hotel 200

We had a wonderful stay at Minakami Kogen and our children keep asking when we can go back! We stayed 4 nights midweek in ski season with a 5 and 8yo. Hotel staff helpful and responsive to emails. Booking the shuttle from Jomo Kogen station was fast and easy. Staff were lovely and helpful in person too, most spoke English and they had translate as well. Connecting corner room was spacious by Japanese standards (we locked the corridor door which gave us a large suitcase space and room to get snow gear on and off). Food (buffet restaurant) was excellent. Lots of variety and each food had clearly marked allergens which made selection easy (we are pescetarian and don't eat meat and there were lots of delicious options). We didn't have problems with availability of early dinner times except on our first day. Both indoor and outdoor onsen were great. We didn't find the walk across the carpark to the outdoor onsen a problem and it was usually very quiet, sometimes we had the bath to ourselves. My children find some onsen too hot, but the outdoor one was perfect because it had two sections, one hotter and one cooler. Snow activities were excellent. We could generally choose an activity, walk up to the desk and book to do it right away. One of the days we bought a lift pass and used the long 500m sled run which was excellent and it was fun to be able to ride the chairlift even though we didn't ski or board. The kids parks were great too, the tubing and sledding was good fun and never crowded. We did the Takaragawa onsen excursion through the hotel and enjoyed it. (Mixed gender, clothed bath along a scenic river). Overall, this hotel far exceeded our expectations and we really enjoyed our stay. Would stay here again.