This hotel was AMAZING!!! The whole area was great, we did the whole 9 Onsen thing, had the Kaiseki dinner and breakfast the next morning (there was coffee!!!) and then went to see the snow monkeys (which were probably my favorite part of the entire trip). The staff was absolutely perfect, extremely helpful and did even more than we could ask for. It took a bit of effort to get up here (check out the shibu onsen website for train dets) but was completely worth it. We would definitely stay here again. Also, when you get to the train station in Shibu, go to the information kiosk and tell them you'd like them to call Ichinoyu to come pick you up - apparently this is totally normal. They came about 5 minutes later to drive us to the hotel. And then the next morning they drove us up to the snow monkeys. All free. Absolutely stay here, it will totally make your trip!!!