Sounkyo Kankou Hotel

This was a perfect spot in the mountains to enjoy onsen with my friend! Originally, we got a smoking room but it was quite intense and we asked if we could change to a non-smoking room. The staff was incredibly accommodating and let us have a new room. I really liked the retro 70s-80s vibes of the hotel as well, and really enjoyed the mixed gender outdoor bath! The breakfast was good too, just the right amount of variety.

The rooms down below near the onsen (since they are smoking ok rooms) are incredibly intense. It was a little hard to breath and I don't recommend staying down there as the non-smoking rooms are much cleaner. Also, the beds were a little hard and some pillows were different from others, but still, we had a good nights rest.

Location close to ropeway, access via train and bus from Sapporo

Nothing

温泉のお湯良かったです。 食事もバイキングでしたが割と満足できました。部屋も経年の建物として考えたらキレイな方かと思いました。

混浴の露天は需要は家族たくさんの人達とカップル位なのかなと思います。もう少し縮小して逆に普通の露天風呂を男女各一つ設けた方が良いかなと。 温泉内身体にお絵描きしてる人達が数人居ましたが禁止じゃないのかな。 別に今の時代普通にタトゥーの人増えてますがやはり古い人間や子供にはあまり印象良くないので他施設の様にキチンと禁止なりの規制をしないとダメかなと。 ちょっとそこは驚きました。

Women have to wear an uncomfortable swimsuit to go to the outdoor public onsen (a kind of thick short jumpsuit with extra unnecessary fabric), while men just have a simple pair of shorts. It's really unpleasant to go to the onsen with that.

The breakfast here was good, especially if you like Japanese food, which my family does. We found that going first thing in the morning was not good, because the tour groups go first thing (6:30), so going around 7:00 yielded the most relaxing breakfast, although on some days it took them longer to replenish dishes they had run out of due to the large groups that had eaten earlier. Similarly, going to dinner when it opens, at 5:30, is recommended to get the best of the buffet. The tour group people usually arrive around 6:00. The buffet doesn't change much, but there's also not much in the area. However, it's nice to have the ease of not having to look for food. There is a 7-11 a 5-minute walk away across the street, but it's easy to miss because the signage is not in the usual 7-11 colors. This would be a nice option for getting food for lunch or something different if you're tired of the buffet.

The hotel was definitely dated and could have been a LOT cleaner. The floor in the dining area was downright disgusting in places, and didn't seem to be cleaned in general. The onsen had tiles missing and looked grotty. The rotemburo (outdoor onsen) was full of bugs, but it's hard to fault them for this. I don't know how you would keep them out. The hotel's bread and butter seems to be large groups who only stay overnight. This is a fine place to stay for a night or two, but there's not much to do in the area and the large groups can make mealtimes, waiting for the elevator, and bathing in the onsen less pleasant than they otherwise would be.

I wanted to experience something that is a big thing in Japan - the minibreak at a huge onsen hotel in the mountains, and the Sounkyo Kankou fitted the bill perfectly. A nice big room, huge buffet restaurant offering excellent breakfast and dinner, and a laundromat which was very handy halfway through my holiday were among the good points. I was so glad I did a dinner + breakfast deal because, apart from one ramen restaurant, the only other places to eat in the village are the four or five other big hotels. The Kankou, incidentally, was just down the road from where I arrived on the the bus from Asahikawa, so if you are reliant on public transport you might face a stiff uphill walk with your luggage if you went to one or two of the other hotels. The ropeway is a short walk away, and the hiking opportunities are brilliant.

It might bother some people, arriving from Europe or North America, to be literally the only westerner in the entire hotel (and on my flight up from Tokyo) and I didn’t go to the onsen because I have on occasions been stared at in these big hot spring bathhouses if I have been there on my own. Onsens are a very social thing, anyway, so whatever your nationality, it works better to go with friends or family.