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A UNIQUE hotel and chapel made entirely of ice has reopened for winter in the ski resort area of Tomamu, Hokkaido, Japan. The dome-shaped building is made from a single unit of seamless ice. This ice hotel officially opened on Tuesday (01/ 20), 2026 (local time) with an air temperature of around minus 10 degrees Celsius.
“We want people to enjoy the cold through direct experience,” said General Manager of Hoshino Resorts Tomamu, Iwao Watanabe, quoted by Kyodo News.
The ice hotel was built by spraying water and snow onto balloons at night with extreme temperatures until they froze. After the balloon was released, a dome structure was formed with a diameter of around 8.5 meters and a height of 3.5 meters.
This inn only accepts one group of guests per day. The temperature inside the hotel ranges from minus 5 to minus 7 degrees Celsius.
Even though all the walls and ceilings are made of ice, the management provides special sleeping bags so that guests can survive the cold night temperatures.
Guests staying at other hotels in the Tomamu resort complex can try this experience for an additional fee of around 28,000 yen or the equivalent of IDR2.7 million per person. The ice hotel will operate until February 20 and is reportedly fully booked for the season.
Apart from hotels, the Ice Village area also has an Ice Chapel or ice chapel which stands between rows of ice domes. The chapel has been the location of more than 660 wedding ceremonies and this year marks the 20th anniversary of its existence. [sources/photo special]
