This is not a shiny glamorous resort but we enjoyed our stay at North Country Inn because it felt rather friendly and homely. We stayed in a triple room which had plenty of space.

The in-house bar was a great place to hang and meet like-minded people. Some nights it was very quiet whilst other nights there was quite a collection of us in there enjoying a bevvie.

Not many places in Furano have an onsen so that was really convenient to have an onsen each night, even though the onsen was rather small and I wasn’t sure if it was truly a natural hot spring. It was particularly relaxing in the outdoor onsen surrounded by snow.

Breakfast was a bit of a highlight with a huge selection of items on offer. Dinner was reasonably priced but we generally went into town for some great Japanese food.

The wifi only worked in the common areas, but this is pretty typical of most places we’ve stayed in japan.

The staff were always on hand to provide assistance. Some spoke perfect English whilst a couple struggled with English – probably a lot less than I struggle with Japanese!

There’s not really any superbly located accommodation in Furano. Either it’s right near the lifts, but then you often want to travel into town for dinner, or you’re near the restaurants but not near the ski areas. Either way you have to catch buses or taxis at some point, so we didn’t mind staying a little away from things because we knew others had to use shuttle services too. The hotel ran a very regular shuttle to and from the ski area, and did drop-offs in town in the evenings. We just caught a taxi home which was pretty easy.
See our video here