Nagano, Japan

Shishi-Iwa House

Price per night from$432.09

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (inclusive of taxes and fees) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (JPY60,720.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Shishi-Iwa House Photos

Style

Dwell-being concept

Setting

Karuizawa national park

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Working with the principle that your environment shapes your quality of life, Japanese hideaway Shishi-Iwa House recruited Pritzker Prize-winning starchitects Shigeru Ban and Ryue Nishizawa to ensure those shapes are as pleasing to the eye and mind as can be. Three uniquely designed houses promote wellbeing through communion with nature at all turns; peaceful practices (lo-fi rooms, tea ceremonies and gentle forest walks); region-reflecting cuisine, and arts and crafts to inspire. They’ve made the finest of forms to leave you in much a similar state.

Smith Extra

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Special tasting set of three honeys from Ogihara Bee Farm

Facilities

Photos Shishi-Iwa House facilities

Need to know

Rooms

30, including four suites, set in three houses, each designed by a big-hitter architect.

Check–Out

11am, but you can stay till 2pm for 30 per cent of the room rate or 5pm for 50 per cent, subject to availability. Check-in is 3pm to 8pm; notify staff if you’ll be arriving later.

More details

Some rates include breakfast.

Also

Unfortunately, this hotel is unsuitable for guests with mobility issues.

At the hotel

Tea room, lounges, bathhouse, library, free-to-borrow bikes and plug-adaptors, and free WiFi throughout. All guests can use the facilities in houses SSH No 01 and SSH No 02; however, those in SSH No 03 can only be used by guests staying there. To keep rooms as haven-like as possible, there are no electronics.

Our favourite rooms

Nagano Prefecture’s landscape is painterly, but turn contemplation within here – to the three houses’ interiors, that is. Each is unique and custom-designed down to door-handles and power outlets. Shigeru Ban’s SSH 01 is more fluid in form with latticed woods; SSH No 02 is more sociable, with its restaurant and bar, and vast windows; and Ryue Nishizawa’s SSH No 03 is a darker beauty with a charred-wood exterior, sukiya-zukuri layout – similar to a samurai house – and bathhouse and tea lounge (with limited guest access). In the latter you’ll share space with design icons: Arne Jacobsen's ‘Swan Chair’, Pierre Jeanneret's ‘Easy Chair’, Michael Thonet's ‘Bentwood Stool’ and more.

Spa

In SSH No 03’s Bath House you can soak in cypress tubs whose scent will transport you into forest-bound reveries (45 minutes a session; guests from SSH No 01 and SSH No 02 will need to pay an entrance fee) or indulge in a shiatsu massage. Private morning yoga sessions can be arranged in the garden or wellness room, but for more of a workout, the hotel has partnered with Kazakoshi Park gym (around JPY600 a session), a 10-minute drive away.

Packing tips

Have a sketchpad and mechanical pencils at the ready for drafting your own dream-house ideas. And, use any picked-up structural know-how to re-pack your suitcase after you’ve binged on buying handicrafts.

Also

School yourself on the poetic rigours of Japanese architecture and art in the library, which has many dedicated books. And, an online boutique sells artisanal souvenirs (Norikazu Oe ceramics, bottles from whisky and Madeira collabs, Ploh linens) too.

Children

The harmonious environment here extends to little ones. There are spacious family rooms, babysitting on request, a dedicated kids menu and nature- and craft-based activities for all ages.

Sustainability efforts

Sustainability is built into the foundations of all three houses, using cedar wood in structures that were built off-site and assembled in the forest. Within, architect Shigeru Ban’s furnishings are largely assembled from durable paper tubes. Single-use plastics are banned, and if you decide to forego daily housekeeping during your stay, you’ll get a JPY1,000 voucher to use in Shola restaurant. There’s also an admirable dedication to Japanese history and craft, following traditional Zen-boosting layouts and using artisanal textiles, ceramics and more to conserve national heritage as well as the planet.

Food and Drink

Photos Shishi-Iwa House food and drink

Top Table

As nose-to-the-glass as you can get for vitamin D dosing and visions of life-giving greens. Or, even better, dine on one of the terraces.

Dress Code

Follow the houses’ precise clean lines, fine workmanship and organic flow.

Hotel restaurant

Japanese-French restaurant Shola sits on the top floor of SSH No 02 house, where natural light floods in through huge glass panes and the high ceiling is trussed to stop any pesky columns from obscuring the view. Chef Masashi Okamoto has built up strong connections with local farms, growers and makers to ensure a hyper-seasonal menu. Expect ethically reared meats and freshly picked herbs and vegetables in ramen or Shinshu Wagyu burgers, or more complex creations, say, confit yam with seaweed, fermented cabbage and blue cheese in a burdock sauce.

Hotel bar

The Wine & Whisky Bar sits beside Shola restaurant, serving namesake tipples (including rare malts, Bordeauxs and Burgundies), local sakes and cocktails (ume mojitos, sakura-based sips). It’s flush with the library for musing over artist Jim Shaw's comic-strip-esque works. There’s a Cigar Room if that’s how you round off an evening; or take a healthier tack on the Forest Terrace with a matcha cappuccino or house-blend maple-leaf tea. There are lounges for drinks in all houses too – with a selection of free Japanese sweets and teas for guests in SSH No 03.

Last orders

Breakfast is from 7.30am to 11am (order by 10am); lunch is from noon to 2pm (order by 1.30pm); and dinner is from 6pm to 10pm (order by 9pm) for à la carte; the set menu has sittings at 6pm and 8pm.

Location

Photos Shishi-Iwa House location
Address
Shishi-Iwa House
389-0111 Nagano Kitasaku District
Karuizawa
2147
Japan

An architectural holy grail, Shishi-Iwa House’s three impeccably crafted residences are folded into Nagano prefecture forest, just north of popular resort town Karuizawa.

Planes

The Nagano region has an airport (Matsumoto), but getting there involves a somewhat convoluted journey for international travellers and it’s about a 90-minute drive from the hotel. Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports are both around a two-and-a-half-hour drive away. Transfers can be arranged on request (prices vary depending on the type of car).

Trains

Karuizawa Station is the closest, a 10-minute drive away. It’s a stop on the Hokuriku Shinkansen’s (AKA bullet train) line, which connects you with Tokyo in just over an hour. Transfers to the hotel start from JPY4,000 one-way in a taxi (JPY10,000 in a larger hotel car – the best option for groups or families).

Automobiles

While Karuizawa has walkable stretches, the hotel is about a 40-minute walk away in greener pastures (well, copses), so a car will come in handy, especially if you want to roll out and explore Nagano’s ski-famed mountains. There’s free parking on-site.

Worth getting out of bed for

You won’t get the benefit of amicably co-existing with nature unless you invest in the relationship. You may find a lot of common ground in scenic trails with forest-bathing pit stops; admiring the garden’s cherry blossoms or autumnal momiji-leaf reds; treks through Hakushu forest’s wilds; fishing in Kuma River or bird-spotting at the Karuizawa Sanctuary. Meditate by Sengataki and Shiraito waterfalls, explore the high and marsh lands of Joshinetsu Kogen National Park and rocky vistas of Onioshidashi volcanic park (on request); or take things to the next level, skiing (in season), horse-riding and climbing Mount Asama. Or hop on an e-bike (available on request) and ride out to picturesque Harnile Terrace, sometimes hung with an Insta-worthy canopy of colourful umbrellas.

Community and culture are key here too: the hotels’ architects, local artists and makers (Daimon Sake Brewery, Beard Coffee Roasters and more) give fireside talks, you can take a modern tea ceremony (or watch tea-roasting), learn the art of kintsugi, visit sake breweries and micro-farms (including Ogihara Bee Farm) with the chef, and taste whiskys, wines, sakes and gins. From December to April, you can learn how to make onigiri, and more edification can be found on a tour of Karuizawa’s workshops and museums – say, Kalko Craft for ceramics, fellow architectural beauty Hiroshi Shenju Museum of Art or Sezon Museum of Modern Art.

Local restaurants

As a resort town, Karuizawa has some notable eateries. Hermitage de Tamura dabbles in delicate tasting menus (butterbur-shoot crème brûlée, fried young sweetfish, coconut mousse with citrus jelly and mint ice-cream), but is most famous for its seasonal chilled peach soup. Sakaba Eito is an adults-only bar with a multi-course omakase menu using foraged vegetables. Kagimotoya is the go-to for buckwheat noodles and Kuroiwa Muni has kaiseki courses inspired by Japan’s 24 solar terms.

Local cafés

Bean aficionados will love Karuizawa Coffee Company Roastery, where staff will blend and roast beans to your tastes. And Maruyama Coffee has a chemist-like syphon set-up at the bar, and many, many varieties to try.

Local bars

Adults-only Bar Katsuji was formerly a home for the elderly, but it’s a little livelier now; there are 500 bottles of sake to choose from, but signature cocktail ‘Orchard Night’ is making a name for itself in bartending circles.

Reviews

Photos Shishi-Iwa House reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this exceptionally aesthetic stay close to popular Japanese resort town Karuizawa and unpacked their perfectly imperfect ceramics and snuggly Ploh bathrobes, a full account of their harmonising-with-nature break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Shishi-Iwa House in the Nagano prefecture…

It’s our belief that living in a Pritzker Prize-winning house designed by a lauded architect would positively impact our wellbeing. But this hypothesis is put into practice at Shishi-Iwa House, where monumental craftsmen Shigeru Ban and Ryue Nishizawa have designed three residences, striking in their calming simplicity, that aim to inspire creativity and generally spark joy. This is achieved through views from bedrooms, cedar-wood bath tubs and balconies that revere nature; serene bath house soaks, gentle tea ceremonies, and being surrounded by beautiful things. Also here to boost happiness levels are the experiences on offer (farm visits, sake tastings, forest-bathing treks) that wrap you up in the ukiyo-e print landscape. Here, all is very well indeed.

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Price per night from $380.86