Zaborin

Zaborin stands in silver birch woodland on the Hanazono side of Niseko, deliberately away from the ski village noise. The architecture is stripped-back and contemporary rather than antique, with long horizontal roofs, glass walls onto the forest and interiors of pale timber and dark stone, but the underlying logic is pure ryokan.

There are fifteen villas and no more. Each has both an indoor rock bath and an outdoor one on a private deck, drawn from the property's own hot spring, so guests never have to share a bath if they don't want to. In winter, snow banks up to the deck rail; in summer the same view is deep green and loud with birds.

The kitchen practises what it calls kita kaiseki, a northern reading of the Kyoto tradition using Hokkaido seafood, game and vegetables across a long tasting sequence. Niseko's lifts are a short drive for skiers, and Rusutsu and the Yotei foothills are within easy reach for those who prefer to stay off-piste entirely.