Hotels near Huis Ten Bosch Dec 31 - Jan 1?

I have been planning to book a room near Huis Ten Bosch for December 31 - January 1 because I heard the new year light show is very nice.

However, I have been looking at the schedule almost everyday since May and I have never seen a room open up. I went to the hotel website (I checked Hotel Nikko, Hotel Amsterdam, Hotel Europe, and Hotel Forest Villa), and December 30, 31, and January 1 are blacked out. I looked at the details it says "NOT AVAILABLE", not "SOLD OUT" and red like the other sold out dates. So I have a feeling it means something else and not really sold out.

Are the rooms just not available yet, or I can't book on those dates? I'm really looking forward to this because it was supposed to be the highlight of my trip but I can't find any rooms.

If anyone can suggest a place nearby that we can also stay in that would be great!

You can find many available rooms in Sasebo (especially near Sasebo station), if that's close enough for you.

I also considered that, but if I were to watch the show, that means I have to be able to somehow get back to the hotel at around 1am and I'm not sure if the trains are active.

I have read somewhere that for that special day, the trains will run until the wee hours of the morning from Huis Ten Bosch station. Is this true?

Thanks!

Yes there are special trains, you can see last year's announcement here. https://www.jrkyushu.co.jp/nagasaki/news/2014/12_24.html

Just took a look at it, thank you very much for the info!

I'm still hoping to get a room in the compound itself but if there's no choice I will book a hotel in Sasebo :)

Thanks for the help!

I don't know where you are looking but on the official Huis Ten Bosch site all hotels are marked sold out for Dec 30 to Jan 2 but have rooms available for all the other days of December and January, so it's pretty clear they are sold out for thse days.

Yeah I just saw a blog post that rooms get sold out for that day like 1 year before, so I guess there's no hope :(

I was looking at the individual hotel sites. It might be my browser or something, but while other dates like September 12 has "NA-Not available" or "Sold out" clearly marked on them, I just found it weird that Dec 30 - Jan 2 or Sept 19-22 is just greyed out instead of them putting a similar notice, that's why I thought it might mean something else.

Anyway I'm gonna be reserving a hotel in Sasebo now before they decide to run out as well XD

Thanks again!