About Shiretoko Village

Shiretoko Village is a ryokan-style (Japanese inn) hostel and hotel with an onsen approximately 1 km from the centre of Utoro, a village in the Shiretoko UNESCO Natural Heritage Park. It sits partially up a hill in a forest away from other buildings and hotels.

Shiretoko Village offers beds in dorms, individual rooms, rooms for two people and family rooms (for 4 people). It also has a dining room where breakfast and dinner are served.

If you book one of the rooms (rather than the dorm beds), breakfast is included in the price. Breakfast consists of a Japanese buffet style (called “Viking” in Japanese) that is based primarily on seafood, rice and miso soup. There are also various vegetable dishes available. Everyone is served with a personal hot pot that contains dango (Japanese dumplings made with regular rice flour and glutinous rice flour) – the filling depends on the day – and green vegetables.

Dinner can be booked before 18:30 the previous day.

The onsen is open from 3 p.m. to 9 a.m. the following morning. There are two – one for women and one for men – as well as two private onsens that are available to hire from the front desk. You need to use the towel from your room but everything else (e.g. shampoo, soap, etc) is provided in the onsen.

Location

Utoro is a small village on the Shiretoko peninsula. Between it and another town named Rausu, everyone visiting the Shiretoko UNESCO Natural Heritage Site for more than just a day trip stays in one of the two towns.

Utoro is also home to the Shiretoko UNESCO Natural Heritage Site building, which tells about the history, natural history and ecology of the park.

It also has a small port where boat cruises depart from to travel up and down the coast of the peninsula and a small fishing port, where most of the restaurants (all of which serve seafood) get their daily supply from.

Gallery

About the space

I stayed in a family room as there were no other rooms available when I booked in the entire village. I found it to be very comfortable and spacious (especially since I was only 1 person!).

You entered into a small entrance area. To the left was the door to the toilet. To the right was a sink and beyond that was a door to the wet room containing a shower and bathtub.

Directly ahead was the main room, which had tatami (a rush-covered straw mat) flooring. This is where you spend most of your time when in the room. Futons are spread on the ground at night. During the day, these are moved to the closet in the room. In terms of furniture, there is a low table with floor chairs and a “normal” table (with legs) and two chairs. There is also a long space that can be used as a shelf or desk.

The good

Here is what I said on Booking.com

Shiretoko Village was an excellent hotel. The breakfast was a traditional Japanese buffet style (called “Viking” in Japanese). The food was very good – and I am not a breakfast person usually! The room was also comfortable (4-person family room) and was in the annex building. The onsen was simple but perfect – a nice square area with two baths: a “colder” one (still very hot) and an (extremely) hot one. If you like hotel onsen and very hot baths, you will enjoy this one.

The bad

Here is what I said on Booking.com

For someone who did not have a car, walking to and from Shiretoko Utoro took about 15-20 minutes. Some other people mentioned an afternoon bus in their reviews but I asked (in Japanese) and they were not sure what I was referring to. Keep this in mind when you book this place. It is better to come by car.

Response to my review

Here is what the owners had to say:

(There has been no response so far)

What I did while there

Verdict

I would definitely stay here again, although as someone who is a light sleeper, easily disturbed in the night and finds it hard to go to sleep in the first place, I would avoid the hostel on principle.

Thanks for reading! Want to do some more exploring? Have a look at the travel map:

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