Kamikochi hotels
 

My family and I will be visiting Japan in late May 2017. Our children will be 8 and 10. Traveling between Tokyo and Kyoto we'd like to stay in Kamikochi for two nights for hiking. I've tried multiple hotel reservation sites, but it seems that every hotel is booked in Kamikochi, even on a Thursday and Friday night (May 25 and 26). Is it possible the hotels just haven't opened their rooms for reservations this far in advance, or do they typically book up in late May this far in advance?

Thanks!

It's likely that the hotels you are looking at haven't yet opened reservations for those dates. You can email the hotel directly, as sometimes they will book early, or just wait and watch for the dates to open up.

As Kathie wrote, what you could do is to write to hotels directly (in simple English probably preferable )

I tried rakuten.travel, a poplular Japanese hotel booking site, they have Englsih page but I got no result for your dates so tried the Japense page and got 13 hotels in Kamikochi ( prices vary from 15000 to 70000 yen for 2 nights, conditions also vary, room only, B & B to half board)

I also tried booking.com. Put Kamikochi and got a lots of hotels only in Takayama. The sites says those hotels are 5-7 km from Kamikochi which I'm not sure if I can trust.

I would trust those distances. Takayama extends to the east all the way to the Gifu-ken border with Nagano-ken. You really need to look at the full address.

The closest (3.7 mi) lodging at booking dot com is:
Nakaodaira
Gifu, Takayama, Okuhida Onsenkyo Nakao

The place is Okuhida an hour by bus from Takayama and not actually Takayama city.

I think it would be fun to stay in Kamikochi, near the Kappabashi and visitor center. For two nights and hiking, I suggest looking in the larger area around it, especially in the Okuhida Onsen area. That is, definitely visit the main Kamikochi site but you don't necessarily want to stay there.

Or stay in Kamikochi and go around to the Okukida Ropeway and take that to the top then descend to Kamikochi.
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5943.html
http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e6040.html

I have made reservations for Japanese hotels a year in advance. However, I sent emails to the hotels directly. If you can even find the email addresses, write to five of them and don't be surprised if only two or three respond back. When you choose your favorite, be sure and write back to the others to cancel, as they will assume that you are coming, even if you never responded back.

I once complained to the ladies at the Los Angeles JNTO office about the lack of responses from Japanese hotels, and they said that many hotels still use faxes. I imagine you can try that as well.

> The closest (3.7 mi) lodging at booking dot com is:
Nakaodaira, Gifu, Takayama, Okuhida Onsenkyo Nakao

I don’t get above accommodation on booking.com when I search for Kamikochi. But when I put it on google map and see the distance ( I picked Teikoku Hotel Kamikochi which is 1km from Kappa-bashi) by car / on foot, it shows 36km ( 22 miles). So I'm not sure about what you say.

Ok, the difference must be that the 3.2 miles is a straight line distance, up and over the mountain. The 22 miles is driving distance around the mountains. So the distance at booking is a bit misleading.