Posts Tagged ‘onsen’

Hakone is well know as one of the main resort towns locals from Tokyo vacation to over the weekend to excape the crowded city, soak in hot springs, and see the sights. Although blatantly touristy there is no denying the onsens there are some of the best in Japan.  We booked one night in Hakone at a traditional Ryokan with an attached onsen and spa.  I spent weeks and weeks browsing Japanese websites and figuring out Japanese reservation systems until I landed on Yamanochaya.  I had been to a few Ryokan before, but none were really at the same level as Yamanochaya, and none had the traditional Kaiseki I was looking for.  Despite the good reviews I was still slightly apprehensive about booking a Ryokan I had never been to, in a town I’d never been to.  However once we got to Hakone, and I was greeted by the Yamanochaya staff, all that apprehension went away.

Tori on lake Ashi

We started our day off by getting separated and only one of us getting on the train for Hakone (which wasn’t good since I only had 4,000 yen and no passport), but by noon we were back together and headed into town.  We grabbed some lunch and then walked around Lake Ashi, and viewed the shrine.  Since it was in the middle of the week, the town wasn’t crowded, in fact when we took the cable car up the mountain much of the town seemed like an abandoned amusment park (the prevailing fog and overcast sky helped as well).  We then headed for Yamanochaya for our dinner.

One of the many courses of our dinner.

Before I go into any great detail, I have to say this was one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life.  8 courses of both traditional Japanese fare with a slightly modern twist for a few of the courses.  Sadly the menu was all in Japanese filled with kanji, so we could only read some of it, but Sawa-san, our server, was kind enough to go through each item.  The only negative I could think of was the fact there was so much food I had a hard time finishing everything and by the end there were a few bits I just could not finish.  After we finished our meal we headed to the onsen, which was also fantastic.

Yamanochaya is located along the river, which provides for the perfect location for the onsen experience.  There were four onsen in total, one of which was a private onsen you had to reserve ahead of time and was sadly booked solid.  There was an indoor onsen (which we didn’t make it to), and two more outdoor onsen.  Like most Ryokan with onsen, there is no mixed bathing and the baths switch gender and a predetermined time.  From the two we did visit, I would have to say they were easily the best onsen I’ve ever been to, the attached bathrooms and changing rooms were also excellent and were as good or better than what you would find at a Ryokan costing thousands a night.  Both were in the open outside, surrounded by trees and the night sky, something you don’t see in Tokyo.

Our room at Yamanochaya, Tsuki Midai (moon viewing) room.

If your like me and enjoy being babied in a sort of motherly way, staying at a traditional Ryokan can be an absolutely amazing experience.  Every detail is tended to, food is meticulously prepared and served in your room, your futon is laid out for you while you soak in the onsen, everything has a purpose and structured to the point where it seems like its a science.  Maids wear traditional Kimono in the evening and provide the highest level of service, down to the way they shut the door when they leave your room.  The whole experience was far beyond what I was expecting.  Sawa-san was extremely helpful and a pleasure to talk with and the food (both dinner and breakfast) was absolutely fantastic.  The level of service you get when you stay at a quality Ryokan with only 15 or so rooms is unparalleled, I’ve stayed at some of the best hotels in the world and never had this level of service or attention to detail.  I would highly recommend Yamanochaya to anyone looking for an authentic Ryokan experience in Hakone, I plan on returning whenever I find myself back in Hakone.  Truly a refreshing and special experience.

By now I’ve visited two Onsen, Yudanaka Onsen Seifuso and Korakukan Jigokudani. Both have been wonderful although I would have to say I prefer Yudanaka Onsen Seifuso if I had to choose. Onsen by nature are somewhat smelly, in that they expel a mild sulfer-ish stench. It not overwhelming, although you never quite acclimatize to the sulfur smell. Yudanaka Onsen Seifuso had a Onsen which didn’t have as much minerals in the water, which lended a more pleasant experience in my opinion, the water was also warmer. Korakukan Jigokudani had a more “natural” Onsen, and although I did enjoy myself the outdoor Onesen was rather difficult to get used to. Matt was insistent that I join him outside, which I eventually did, however the thought of monkey poo infecting my penis never quite escaped me. I know that there was no chance of inoculating myself with microbes due to money refuse, however working in microbiology I couldn’t let the thought escape me. Overall both were fun and I would definitely partake again if I had a chance. Aside from the nudity and money poo, the experience was fantastic.

If there is a re-occurring theme of this trip, it would be walking and sometimes running. Each day we’ve both walked at least 5 miles or more, sometimes with all our luggage. Its very similar to what my Europe trip was like about a year ago, walking everywhere and rushing all the time. This isn’t a bad thing, since I can eat anything I want and I’ll burn the calories right away. However my travel companion, Matt, walks at an insane pace. At times is difficult to keep up with him, I’m worried later on he’s going to speed walk his way into getting us lost. In any case, yesterday was our last day in Tokyo.

View of Mt. Fukji from Fujiyoshida

We first visited Fujiyoshida to view Mt. Fuji, and then later on headed to our first Ryokan, Yudanaka Onsen Seifuso. Fujiyoshida was great, we both got some great views of Mt Fuji and we were able to visit the Fuji Sengen Shrine. Fuji Sengen was about as large as the shrine in Tokyo, however it wasn’t crowded at all and was filled with fantastic sacred trees as well as deer and crows. We were even able to glimpse the priest as he preformed an unknown ceremony for a couple, and Miko (shrine maiden) selling Omamori charms. Later, per the recommendation of the tourist attendant (in Japanese no less, thanks to Matt), we found a very small and local Udon Noodle restaurant. Our noodles were only 350 Yen, and the restaurant was basically in the lower level of someones house. It was a fun experience, especially when one of the younger girls who lived there kept on saying “bye bye” as we left. Both of us (especially myself) are still getting used to all the nuances of Japanese culture. For example at the Udon restaurant, our waitress re-arranged our shoes by the door so they were pointing out, this was something I was completely unaware of. After Fujiyoshida, we headed back for Tokyo to transfer to our Shinkansen. The only difficult part was our journey was rather tight as in we had little time between train transfers. This was rather stressful as we were running from one train to the other with all our luggage, during the middle of Tokyo rush hour. And to top of off, it took us nearly an hour to find our Ryokan in the dark despite being 5min away from the train station, however I was finally able to locate the building using my iPhone.
Since we arrived late, we ate dinner on the train and settled into our room after we arrived. It was amazingly large by Japan standards, and later that night both of us ventured into the Onsen despite myself being extremely worried about accidentally going into the womens bath. Everything went fine though and was a very pleasant experience. Breakfast was traditional Japanese, and our hostess was very nice and even gave us a bus schedule and two apples for the road when we left.

Japanese Snow Macaques bathing in the onsen.

Today we’re staying at our second Ryokan, Korakukan Jigokudani. We arrived via a 1.5K walk on a trail covered with ice and oddly enough Australians. At our fist Ryokan, I was convinced we were perhaps the only guests, however here there are quite a few foreigners, especially loud annoying Australians. Another odd find is a wireless internet connection (which I’m using right now), considering I’m in the middle of nowhere with monkeys. I believe this is the only place where you can actually walk right up to Snow Monkeys in their natural habitat.

P.S. If you want to see more pictures from my trip so far, I’ve added a bunch of pictures from my trip on Flickr.