Shari Hotels with Free Parking.

The hotel is a bit old, and the room facilities are quite dated. However, the check-in and check-out process is rather novel; you have to do it yourself at a machine. For a foreigner, it was quite confusing. Luckily, the front desk staff, who looked Indian, spoke English that I barely understood. The Japanese front desk staff didn't speak much English either. The hotel has several buildings that aren't interconnected. If you go to the wrong building, you have to go down to the first floor and start over. The lobby doesn't indicate which direction to go for which room numbers, so we ended up searching every building to find our room. The restaurant offers a wide variety of food, and the taste is pretty good. But the decor is a bit old-fashioned and gives off a somewhat oppressive feeling.

A word of advice to Chinese travelers: Before booking, always check if your hotel room has air conditioning! Otherwise, checking in during the scorching heat and being assigned a non-AC room can be incredibly frustrating. Thanks to the Ctrip agent who constantly communicated with the hotel front desk, and despite insisting I didn't see the ”no air conditioning” notice, they finally upgraded me to a private Japanese-style room with a private bathroom and mountain views. This unexpectedly made my 3-day, 2-night trip to the Shiretoko Five Lakes a delight.