Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono Opens on Hokkaido’s Powder Slopes
Hyatt's first mountain Park Hyatt in Japan opened on 20 January 2020 with 100 rooms and ski-in, ski-out access at the foot of Niseko's Hanazono slopes.
Park Hyatt Niseko Hanazono opened on 20 January 2020 at the foot of the Hanazono ski area in Niseko, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. It was the third Park Hyatt in Japan, after Tokyo and Kyoto, and the first conceived as a mountain resort, with 100 hotel rooms and more than 80 residences in four further buildings, all with direct access to the slopes.
Niseko is known among skiers for the quantity and quality of its snow: cold, dry air from Siberia crosses the Sea of Japan and deposits very light powder on the mountain through the winter. Its four linked ski areas lie around Mount Annupuri, and on clear days they face the volcanic cone of Mount Yotei across the valley. Hanazono is the quietest of the four, and the hotel was built there by Pacific Century Premium Developments, the Hong Kong-listed developer that owns the resort.
The rooms are large by Japanese standards, with deep soaking baths and windows towards Yotei or the ski runs, and nine suites have their own semi-outdoor hot-spring bath. The resort has an onsen, a spa and a 25-metre swimming pool, a ski valet at the base of the lift, and a chapel in the grounds.
Dining was a central part of the project. The hotel opened with a series of restaurants covering sushi, teppanyaki, robata grilling, Chinese, Italian and French cooking, several of them run by chefs with Michelin-starred restaurants elsewhere in Japan, in a resort town where good food had previously meant small independent restaurants booked weeks ahead.
Niseko is about two hours by road from New Chitose airport, near Sapporo. Its international reputation was built by Australian skiers from the early 2000s, and investment from Hong Kong, Singapore and elsewhere in Asia has followed. Park Hyatt’s arrival confirmed its move upmarket, alongside other new hotels of the period, and the development has continued: Hyatt and the same developer have since announced the One Hanazono Villas, and a Moxy is opening in Niseko Village.
The resort operates all year. Summer in Niseko, cool and green, brings golf, cycling, rafting and walking.