Nestled in a lush and green serene surroundings, Ryutakuzenji Ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel built in old temple buildings. It’s close enough to Tokyo that it’s a popular retreat with the city dwellers, and has plenty of local places of interest for local and foreign tourist alike – like the Shorinzan Daruma-ji Temple, and the famous landmark, the Takasaki Byakue DaiKannon. I chose this spot as a good place to break out trip up to Gunma, and hopefully find an authentic and traditional ryokan experience without too many bells and whistles.
For such a small ryokan, the genkan was huge! Depending on where I search, it says there are only 3 or 4 rooms here, but some of them are enormous and can comfortably accommodate a family of six or more. Each room has a private bath, and there is no communal onsens here. So tattoo friendly as bathing happens in your own room.
There was a very cool bar area where you could help yourself to beer, wine, spirits, and saké on an honour system – you just write down what you’ve collected from the fridge and it will be added to your bill on checkout. This little bar area and its very welcoming and trusting tab system made us feel comfortable straight away.
I was also able to come collect saké cups to take to my room, and all sorts of crockery or barware that might might our stay more comfortable.
The entrance to our room… no real locks, no key. This place operates like a family home.
The small genkan into our room… to the left is the bathroom, to the right is a toilet.
Another high tech looking hairdryer. Maybe I just think that because I don’t own one and never use one?
Cat toilet shoes! 🙂
Our traditional Japanese room – large enough to accomodate up to six futons comfortably! This room is huge, covered in tatami mats, and traditional paper screens.
The screens are on all doors and large windows – and when opened, you can see garden spaces on every side.
It was raining quite heavily when we arrived, but even the rain couldn’t dampen my enthusiasm for this delightful place… we had our own little garden, with an onsen bath on a wooden deck!
Just had to press a button and it would automatically fill, which I did almost as soon as we put our bags down! 🙂
A little Mio sparkling saké, and a soak in the garden while listening to the rain.
We had a restful afternoon (if you don’t count the catching up on work stuff), before going in for dinner. There were three small dining room areas, and opportunity to eat at the bar if you like. Dinner was offered as ‘mountain fare’. So we were expecting hearty and comforting food, but nothing overly fancy.
Appetiser of mixed tempura, served with a light ponzu broth.
Rich beef shabu-shabu served with vegetables, raw egg, tofu, ginger and pickles. I was a bit iffy about the raw egg thing, even though I am aware that the food safety standards are quite high here and eggs are safe to eat uncooked… was just unsuer
But it was delicious – you broil the beef, fish it out par cooked, slop it through the egg mixture and straight into your mouth, and it was tender and rich and delicious! We also had a small soup with some soba noodles in it, and the littlest orange cupcake type thing and a couple of pieces of fruit. Perfectly simple but very, very tasty!
Next morning was magic! Blue skies and 20°C expecte… when in Japan – kawaii selfies! There’s more boobs in that than I thought, oh well, who cares?
Breakfast was equal parts simple, delicious and nutritious. A spot of potato salad, a piece of fried chicken, a piece of grilled salmon, a wee dim sum, some pickles for your rice, and some Tamago, and fruit.
We went out exploring the area for the day – Mr K is obsessed with the high speed rail – and when we made it back to the ryokan, we were greeted with our fabulous private bath. I could really get used to this little garden.
Another round of the Hakutsuru junmai before dinner!
Dinner was a piece of fried river fish with tonkatsu sauce, a steamed boat of beef, vegetables and a bunch of different mushrooms, a cup of curry soup, some rice with pickles and a wee bit of fruit cake and a weird but tasty jelly. The saké was quite good too – though I didn’t manage the name of it.
The dining room we were using had a display of lacquer ware boxes and pattens, I tried to ask the staff about them to find out if they were perhaps old or family objects, but sadly my Japanese is non-existent and their English was just as bad… but we did have some giggly fun trying to communicate really ineffectively!
Breakfast the second morning was something different – a bowl of cold soba noodles, served with a dashi broth, an egg wrapped around some vegetables, a steamed savoury egg custard, and some fruit. First breakfast without rice!
We loved this stay, the massive private garden, the friendly staff and the welcoming homey atmosphere were really appreciated. I feel this is a truly local experience and if that’s appealing, I would totally recommend people add it to their itinerary. I’m going to miss this lovely space.
The temple that the ryokan co-exists with? Services? I’m not sure. The owner/manager of the ryokan is the priest of this temple, and offers meditation every morning for any guests who wish to participate. I had intended to get up early and go check it out, but with my knee, I wasn’t sure I could comfortably sit on the floor for 45 minutes without ending up in pain and fidgeting. The last thing I wanted to do was impact anyone else’s mediation, so I thought better of attending. Maybe next time we come by this way, and I have a feeling we will – it could easily be en route to Nikko if we had to!
