NO Foreign Tourists at this Hidden Japanese Mountain Family Resort

NO Foreign Tourists at this Hidden Japanese Mountain Family Resort

This is Japan’s hidden mountain family getaway to avoid tourists. [Music] So, this one is going to be a super special one because it’s WI’s fth birthday and we chose this spot specifically to get away from all of the masses and I’m super excited to share it with you. So, let’s get this one started. So, this is a special one for me and the family. So, I didn’t mind the 3hour drive to Hosino Resort, Donare Yatsu Gatake, hidden away on the mountain range in Yamanashi Prefecture. It’s known by Japanese as a spot for families with young kids because it offers a lot of fun activities while being immersed in nature. Somehow, you never really find foreign tourists here, but that’s more than fine with us as we do appreciate the local experience. For now, we’ll keep this secret place for ourselves. Oh yeah, and the hotel didn’t pay us to make this video. We paid for everything ourselves. So, this is truly our personal experience which we wanted to share with all of you. We are on our way to our hotel room. We were just waiting in line right here. So, they said that like we have to wait until 6:00 to get our luggage if you want to go up, but we’re just going to bring it up ourselves. What number? 2711. Number always read from the left. So we are going to the hotel room right now. There’s no elevator here. So we got to go up up and up. Wo wo. So big. Wa look Wy. There’s Legos. That’s so nice. Michael, thank you for putting out my slippers for me. So, this place is pretty spacious. Wolie found the Legos right here. So, he’s already fully occupied on doing his thing. While he’s doing that, let me just kind of show you this room. So, we stayed in a family room facing Pean Street, which we were just walking through. So, we got these two double-siz beds here. Going over here, we have two more. So, you can fit like four people at the least. You can actually probably turn this into another living space if you wanted to. What’s kind of cool about this room, you know, I love the Japanese toilets, as you guys know, as I will always say, but they even set out a kids toilet seat, which is pretty nice. Pretty cool. You got your own balcony space here. Got a little sofa. And if you look out here, you can see the ropes course. Okay. How is it? Good. We’re going to have some family cheesecake time. They provided it for us here. Oh, sure. It’s like Elon Musk rich. How old are you? Oh, you are five. Five. You grew up so fast, huh? I don’t know if you guys have ever had a kid or not, but 5 years have gone by so fast. I can’t believe we’ve actually have been doing channel for 5 years after I gave a birth. Six years. Actually, it’s five years. Well, it starts at zero, right? Zero is one year. No. So, if after one year he’s been alive one, right? Yes. So, if it’s five in five years, that’s true. They offer all kinds of outdoor activities and arts and crafts which you need to book in advance. So before our trip we had Wolfie helped plan this stay. He was super excited to be part of it. And this year instead of getting him toys for his birthday, the trip itself is his gift. But to be honest with you, and as you’ll see in this video, it ended up being a gift for all of us. So, outside of the hotel fee, we had to pay separately for the activities like this athletic course, which is designed for kids aged 3 to 7 and cost $2,000 yen, about $14. Wolfie was actually tall enough for the upper level, but he chose to start from the beginner course instead. Be okay. Either way, seeing his excitement is priceless. Just hoping that the rest of the stay here goes as smoothly. So, that was pretty cool. That was fun. Let’s move on. There’s actually a lot of stuff around here. [Music] It’s pretty cool is they had like a flower event here. All of these flowers, everything is for free to take home. So, what’s interesting about this place also is that just walking around this area, you don’t really feel like you’re in Japan. It feels like you’re in, I don’t know, some European villa or something. What do you think of this place so far? I like it. It’s so big. Like right when you got out of the elevator, it smelled like flowers. I wonder why. So Pan Street is just outside of our room and is filled with shops and restaurants. Since the Yamanashi area is known to be Japan’s most famous wine region, there are many wine shops and bars scattered all throughout the street. Plenty of places to simply pass the time together. Something I’ve actually been struggling with these days. You know, traveling across Japan to make my videos has been such a meaningful part of my life for so long, as I’ve been able to experience so many incredible people and places, and the fact that I get to share them with all of you is something I’m deeply grateful for. But sometimes I wish I just had more moments like today to simply spend time with my family, like watching my son spin a top for the first time. For our first night, we booked one of the resorts buffet restaurants. We were pretty impressed with the selection, but the best part, they have a special kids buffet, too. You can really tell this place is designed with families in mind. What did you get? My favorite cheese is this. I just going to eat it just right now. [Music] It’s good. You’re amazing. Where did you learn that? For you. Cheers to you guys. Happy birthday, my dude. You want to compai with daddy? Compai. This is how I’m going to start. So, you know, we’ve been to a lot of hotels, but he’s never really gone to a buffet and like picked out his own food, and he’s finally doing it all by himself. I don’t know. Just these little moments I appreciate so much. Just watching him grow. It makes these like trips worth it. Here you choose a main dish on a stone grill with a buffet. Michael got the fish, and of course, I got the steak. And Wolfie got the kids hamburgate. What do you think about the food? I haven’t tried the main dish yet, but the buffet was so good. I like how they had a lot of seafood variation also like appetizer selection. I like this place. There’s anything that you wish they had, what would it be? It’s more lean on Western food than Japanese food. So, it would be nice if I had sashimi or like seafood section. See Okay, good morning y’all. Got my morning TI’s coffee. You know, I like it cold. Wow. I’m uh looks like I’m a little bit tired this morning, but oh well. It is about 5:00 right now. I just had to take that first drink. So, last night was pretty chill. Just spent some family time. Wolfie started practicing wall stands. That was fun. It is just so crazy. This last week I took two trial lessons. We went to a jiu-jitsu class. He didn’t like it so much. So, we’ll see. We’re going to try one more trial lesson to see if he likes it. And then I also took him to a soccer class and he actually liked that. So, we’ll be going to that for sure. It’s actually interesting in Japan at this age, a lot of parents start enrolling their kids in different sports. And one of the things that’s most popular and a lot of the kids are doing is English. But Wolfie, you know, he already speaks English. So, okay. So, for today’s plan, we have actually some stuff going on. The first thing we’ll probably go hit the pool. Man, just coming out here just being one with nature. I mean, doesn’t look like nature as much, but just on this balcony, just seeing all the trees. Wolfie and I actually went around last night and we put on these like headlights and we were like searching for bugs and stuff. We caught a few bugs. Pretty cool. Morning. Morning. How was your sleep? Good. Does you look good? But I have no makeup on. People wouldn’t know if that’s me. It would be another woman sleeping with us. All right, Wolfie. Good morning. No pool today. Yes, pool. If you want to go pool, let’s go. George, how old are you again? Seven. [Music] Okay, so the family is up now, finally. So, we’re going to go head to the pool. Wow, their pool was pretty impressive, especially being up in the mountains. The big wave pool was awesome, and the kids area was super spacious. It even has a ball pit for the little ones. Outside, they also had a massive heated jacuzzi pool. Wolfie couldn’t get enough of the slide. He just kept going again and again. It made me so happy to see him excited for his birthday. Definitely worth every penny of this trip to simply see him laugh and smile like this. Also, this trip felt a bit more relaxed than some other places as it’s not crowded at all. I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of being in any place, whether it be a concert, festival, fireworks show, amusement park, wave poolool, anything where I’m packed in with a bunch of people. So, maybe it’s a good thing that the resort limits the number of guests staying in the hotel. This place truly feels like an exclusive local getaway tucked away on a random Japanese mountain side. We are having lunch now. Like a little early lunch cuz we skipped breakfast and straight to the pool. This is potato. I got that premium burger. Pretty awesome. They have a little cafe you can eat here where I got my non-alcoholic beer. I have to drive a little bit later. There we go. Wo, this is a very seasoned burger. Lots of different flavors popping out. Definitely like a steak style. Really like chunky. Got onions, tomatoes, cheese, and lettuce. Yeah, you took daddy’s pickle. No more pickle. Oh well, we lost the pickle, but we won the war. So nice. So, we just finished the pool. That was an awesome experience for Wolfie just to be able to do all those different pool activities. But we are moving on to the next thing. So the next activity Wolfie decided to do was a horse riding class. Before heading off to the horse stable, an instructor provided a general lesson about horses. And I guess it’s just us today. Perfect. It feels like we got the VIP treatment. on top of the mountain. Wow. So, after driving about 30 minutes, we finally arrived at the stable. You know what? These shoes, I bought these like in 2010. Look at the condition they’re in. And they’re still fashionable, right? [Music] There’s a dot on it. So, it’s this one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, it’s this she I’m glad that he studied before he came here. Now he has like some stuff he can reference and then just even more excited about learning about horses. Wolie’s been really into animals lately and unfortunately living in Tokyo, he doesn’t get that much exposure to them. But we do feel it’s important for him to have these type of experiences. In fact, Michael’s parents dog Koko passed away recently. You might have seen her in our previous videos. Although Wolf only met Koko a few times, he really bonded with her and was quite heartbroken for quite some time after finding out the news. So, I know he already has a kind and empathetic heart for animals. So, giving him opportunities like this helps nurture this part of his character. So, after all of that preparation, it’s time to ride the horse. Okay, let’s go. [Music] Mama, come over. All right, you good? Byebye. Interestingly, horse riding isn’t a popular sport in Japan at all. Only about 0.05% of the population rides horses compared to say 2.7% in the US. I guess it makes sense since horses just aren’t that closely connected to daily life here. But even though we rarely get a chance to be around them, we had so much fun riding them. Just wish we got to ride a little bit more. Maybe next time we’ll try to find a place where we can do a longer trail. [Music] You both tripped. I was looking at you. I was looking at the camera or something. And so Wolfie fell asleep on the way back. But we’re here at the reception area. I have a long awaited appointment. Apparently every day at the same time, the resort offers a free wine tasting session in the lobby. What a day with the family. Just enjoying some wine. What a great trip so far. This is awesome. Doing all these activities and then coming back here having wine and then we have dinner after this. Man, can things get any better than this? What kills me the most and what I didn’t know until checking out is just around the corner, this drink lounge opens up and has free flowing drinks all night and all included in this day. I can’t believe I missed it. I’m okay actually. Yeah. [Music] Super speed. [Music] Before dinner, we took Wolfie on a strider ride through the forest. It was pretty cool, and the course itself is open all day. We brought Wolfie strider, but they also provide them if you don’t have one. Either way, experiencing something like this with my son was pretty cool. Seriously, when I was younger, I never thought having kids would be for me. But as I look back at my life, I wish I had started earlier. That said, I’m pretty thankful for how things have worked out. You and me going seeing the world, [Music] on the last day, Wolfie even did a forest expedition all by himself. Yeah, we weren’t allowed to join, but I did catch him by a room, walking the trails, and learning from his instructor about bugs and nature. Seriously, there are so many activities to do here, which is why this was the perfect getaway from Tokyo without all the tourists our family needed. Probably one of our best trips as we got to slow life down and simply spend time together. Like do night trail walks, search for bugs, test a range of Woopies walkie-talkies, or simply relax in the public bath. I’ve said it already, but I still can’t believe it’s already been 5 years. What a trip. Even crazier is that we’ve been able to share all of these experiences with all of you. Thank you as always for spending your time with us. And by the way, Wolie later told us he loved his birthday gift and wanted to do something like this again. All right, so we’re going to close it off here. This was our trip in this hidden mountain gem. If you guys like this video, like always, hit that like button. If you guys want to help support the channel, check out the hot sauce. It’s online as well as our Shibuya Tokyo location. If you guys want to see more videos like this or anything related to Japan, hit that subscribe button and the bell button and we’ll catch you guys in the next one.

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Hidden Family Getaway in the Japanese Mountains | Hoshino Resort RISONARE Yatsugatake
This trip was something truly special for our family. To celebrate our son Wolfy’s 5th birthday, we escaped the hustle of Tokyo and drove 3 hours to a hidden gem tucked away in the mountains of Yamanashi—Hoshino Resort RISONARE Yatsugatake.

While this resort is popular with Japanese families for its nature-filled activities and peaceful setting, it’s still a hidden secret for foreign tourists—which made it the perfect off-the-beaten-path destination for us. No sponsorships, no ads—we paid for this trip ourselves, and we just wanted to share our genuine experience with you.

From forest adventures and nature trails to night bug hunts and family walks under the stars, this was one of our best trips ever. Wolfy even went on a solo forest expedition with a guide—he’s growing up so fast…

We slowed life down: walkie-talkie adventures, relaxing in the public bath, and soaking in quality family time. It reminded us how important it is to disconnect, even as content creators, and just be present. If you’re looking for a family-friendly Japanese resort near Tokyo, especially one away from tourists and full of hands-on activities for kids, this is the perfect place. A truly local, peaceful Japanese resort experience

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