Minakami and Takaragawa

Posted on 9 November 2024 by boryssnorc

En route to Minakami, we did some work and then some shopping… snacks, drinks, fabric; you know, the essentials. Lunch time hit and Mr K wanted to find a sushi train. Something to do with us heading towards mountain towns and the high likelihood of there being a decided lack of sushi and seafood on menus, I think he was taking pity on me as he knows how much I love seafood in Japan. We found Hamazushi, which we think is another conveyor belt sushi restaurant chain? Not entirely sure but it was so similar to the last one we visited, odds seem high.

Ordered a ‘Melon Float’ (beause, Japan!), sadly not quite the winner the amazake was at the last place as it was waaaay too sweet.

None of it healthy. Most of it very tasty. Lunch for two for approximately AUD$12 each… can’t complain. Even ordinary sushi train here is better than good sushi train nearly everywhere else in the world.

On the way to Minakami, we stopped at a Tea Cup – I should clarify this a bit: that we call them Tea Cups stops, most other people would probably call them Roadside Service Centres. If you are road tripping, the Tea Cups are essential, because service stations where you buy fuel do NOT always (in fact, do not usually) have bathrooms for public use! The Tea Cups is what they are signed as on the side of the road. The centres are basically large roadside stops with clean bathroom facilities, restaurants where you can get a proper meal – there’s no deep fried fucking Chico Rolls here, baby! – loads of vending machines, as well as local snacks and produce, souvenirs and gifts all sorts of cool stuff. Nearly every one of these places seems to either have its own mascot or has heavily adopted the mascot of the local area. I do not know why – but we no complain. They’re so cute!

And the local mascot will be on everything! This little pig is super cute but kinda cranky-looking, but stuffed if I can figure out what / where he is the mascot for???

Honey seems to be big on the local produce scene here…

We’ve also fallen in love (all over again) with Japanese roadworks… they have the coolest signage and visual warnings to show that there will be delays ahead. I am certain if I could read the signage, it’s probably extremely apologetic about any impending delays. I haven’t managed to get a picture of the guy of the bowing guy that thanks you at the end of the roadworks, but I will continue to try!

We love the little inflatable dudes… they look different in every prefecture.

The little Gunma-chan is the main mascot for this entire prefecture – and he turns up in the most unlikely of places… on road furniture, on saké cups, on pickles!

So, next stop was one of those ‘Insta-famous’ places… I saw it as a recommended stop on a Reel on FB, and added it to my list of things that were en route to places I knew we were going. Jack the Tart Fantasty. No idea who named this place, but Hokkaido cheese tarts in Minakami in the middle of Gunma? Why not, I say! To be honest, I just thought their aesthetic was cool, and wanted to check it out, but taking Mr K here was probably not my best laid plan – because he really likes the sweet stuff!

Weirdest little place ever! We are in the middle of like a tiny town, smaller and as remote as say, Cooyah, and there is a tour bus here visiting a tart shop! They have jazz music playing softly in the background and a LARGE cafe out the back for visitors to have a coffee and a tart. I have no idea what the jazz, old books, and a manual typewriter have to do with Hokkaido cheese tarts in the middle of a Japanease mountain prefecture like Gunma?! But here they are!

I was right, letting Mr K decide what to buy was complete folly – I wanted one cheese tart, he bought seven! Two plain cheese tarts, and one each strawberry, royal tea, matcha, chocolate and pumpkin!

They also sold these little containers of fudge/cookie slice pieces? I don’t know what these are exactly, but they had little samples out and it tasted like pure sugar so I left it well alone.

The most Japanese thing in the weird little cheese tart fantasty house was the Daruma – but he has no eyes yet! Not even one. :’( #SadDaruma

I have no idea how we are going to eat seven cheese tarts… when all our breakfasts and dinners are included in our accomodation in Minakami.

This was about enough for me! Though I did force myself to enjoy most of the strawberry one. Japanese strawberry things actually tasting like real strawberries and all, so it felt like a struggle worth doing.

Random photo of strange brutalist hotel for Angus… because bitches love brutalist architecture. In rural Japan. Confusing (and ugly) AF.

We found our ryokan without any trouble… all that is somewhere else.

After some stupid early work meetings, we made some time to go tootling around the mountains here to check out some of the other towns. So we took up a drive to Takaragawa Onsen.

It was nice to see some colour creeping into the mountains – though they should be bright red and orange by now in a usual season.

I’m still a bit disappointed at the lack of autumn foliage, it’s mid-November and everything should be deep red by now. Fuck climate change and fuck oil and coal executives with their bought and paid for politicians even more. What are we doing?

Still, even with the limited red and orange leaves, the drive into Takaragawa was really pretty.

Takaragawa is a very popular onsen town, and has been consistently rated as one of the best in Japan. It’s an interesting layout in the town – there are ryokan buildings on either side of the river and they all access large public onsens together rather than maintaining their own individual public onsens. Most of the baths are konyuku (mixed gender bathing) where ladies hire a bathing costume and men hide their goolies with their onsen towel. But there are also segregated bathing areas as well.

Now this whole place is ‘discreetly tattoos allowed’. As in, if you are one of the overnight guests staying in the ryokans, the tattooed can get away with using the onsens early in the morning or late in the evenings, or you might be encouraged to cover your tattoos with bandages… but generally, they still do not want tattooed people using the day facilities where the baths are busiest. This is partly why we chose nearby Minakami for a ryokan with a private bathing facility.

No photography allowed here, so here’s some pics blatantly stolen off the internet of the outdoor baths and they look amazing.

Takaragawa is really well known for its autumn magic landscapes.

Following the Tone River …

Minakami is a quaint little town with a small shopping strip near the train station – think about one tenth of the size of Hakone. We did find this quaint little glass art studio which had some beautiful but very chunky glass jewellery on display – it’s not really the sort of thing I wear, but I can appreciate how beautiful it is, and the artistry and skill that goes into making these gorgeous objects.

Seriyu Park on the Tone River has a cool little footbath where you can rest and enjoy the views of the river… which would have been cool, but there was an excavator about 300m away that seemed to be moving/crushing river stones (?) making a helluva racket! So maybe not so relaxing after all.

Also nearby on the riverside was a ‘relaxation zone’ which we initially thought was putt-putt, but then got closer and it looked to have a skate bowl, but got closer and realised it was just a strange arrangement of rocks and things for you to wander through with no seemingly obvious recreational purpose? Maybe it’s the start of a new garden of some sort? It’s a mystery… who knows!

Now, I wish I had taken a photo of the sign explaining this… this lovely riverside park which is where you come to get out of the city and enjoy the nature had been taken over with ‘glass crystal sculptures’ to ‘dazzle and delight’. It was a temporary installation that is over now and looks to have been associated with night time illuminations and possibly fireworks by the river! No particular reason for it seemed evident – like it doesn’t appear to be an annual festival or something??? And, sadly, we missed the night shows by about three days.

I’m easing into it here…

With the polite and not overly strange sculptures…

Then there was this enormous 6-7m diameter monstrosity of glass, driftwood and crystal, mirror balls and ???

So much glass, so much crystal Barbie shiny, so much mirror ball!

Enquiring minds need to know, “Why?”..!

Truly bizarre… and wouldn’t it be some sort of fire hazard?

And all by the peaceful river…

After the excitement and confusion of the Crystal Barbie Park, as it will henceforth be known to us forevermore… we went to the little town, picked up some local beer, saké and retreated to our ryokan to go back to work!

Ikaho Onsen – Oyado Tamaki MOKUREN

Posted on 8 November 2024 by boryssnorc

While we were off exploring, the staff at Oyado Tamaki moved our things into our other room for the next two nights.

I had a chance to take a few more photographs of the entrance to the ryokan when we returned from being out all day. I have to say that is a strange, and I am sure unintended, side effect of the overt hospitality of staying at these lovely inns… when you arrive, there are always staff *outside* to meet you, to help you with your bags and to valet park your car for you and usher you into the inn. The downside of this wonderfully welcoming hospitality, is that if you wanted a moment to take a couple of pictures of the beautiful gardens or the thoughtfully designed entrance to your ryokan you kinda can’t without gumming up the works. First there will be staff there, and you want to try to respect their privacy and not take their photography, and secondly, they are gently ushering you inside to welcome you with tea or beer and snacks, so it feels rude to keep them waiting!

This is the main genkan for the entire ryokan, it is quite large and has a big stove to warm guests in the winter.

We had returned a little earlier than expected so decided to take tea in the lobby, so got to enjoy the garden views for a short time while answering some emails.

Our new room was just down the hall in the opposite direct to our original room.

The ryokan is full of carefully arranged trinkets and artworks to define the season and give the ryokan an ambiance. I know this job falls to the landlady, as with any flower or plant arrangements may be in the display nooks, and I wonder whether it is an easy, second nature task for her or if she agonises over which little ornament to put where and worries over how the lights play over the objects etc.

We had several spaces with little ornaments in display in our room – is the landlady responsible for all of these things? How often do small children come along and make treasures of these attractive little displays?

Wow, so this suite is enormous. We first opened the door to a genkan (entry room/foyer), that I think might have been roughly the size of a hotel room we once booked in Shinjuku a few years back!

The main room was about the size of my kitchen/dining room combined… a gorgeous Japanese furnished living room with tatami mats and chabudai (low Japanese table), as well as rocking chairs and two enormous bean bags!

The bedroom, which was able to be separated using sliding paper screen doors, had very comfy western style beds and a large desk to work at (which is really going came in handy as tomorrow is going to be all work).

I found these chairs which are only a couple of inches off the ground to be far more comfortable than the older style ones which are flat on the floor with a cushion and a back. I would not have thought being barely 4” off the floor would make much difference.

Our room keys had the same well loved/well lived look of the furniture in our other room.

We found some small welcome snacks, some sakura wagashi, little chocolate flavoured beans and crispy coloured sugar snowflakes?

We had glassware and cups, tea pot and tea and coffee making bits enough for four guests. Everything was catered for…

We also had a fairly large fridge full of free beer and soft drinks, that were replenished when the staff serviced the room.

Matcha tea service and another cute sewing kit.

Mr K already at work as I am still checking out the space.

We had a lovely large balcony with views over the mountains – the weather has been glorious to us so far. This time last year we had early snow and it was fun, but also made some of the mountain roads a little hairy!

Hold your hats and add to the slipper collection! Ryokan slippers, room slippers, toilet slippers and now balcony slippers!

The bathroom was very stylish and modern… and the towel warmer was a lot calmer than the Agent Orange one.

We are just as over the top with the amenities as always, and we have some sort of crazy space age looking hair dryer that I am sure the Japanese vloggers are thrilled about!

The shower room was large enough for two – easily! This is a huge suite.

Oh, and the best bit for last… the open air bath. All these wooden slatted doors were on sliders so you could open the entire space to the views if you wished (being simultaneously aware that doing so mean you were opening the view in too!).

The water quality here was simply exquisite. It felt soft and silky, and left my skin feeling so amazingly soft. I wish we could take this home with us!

Loved it! The entire decor, the whole suite, it is just beautiful.

We had an enormous range of clothing available for our use during our stay, hanten coats, more yukata in so many sizes, samue pyjamas, more tabi socks etc. We also found a stack of futons in the closet – I dare say the room could comfortably accomodate 5 or 6, though you wouldn’t want to all be trying to use the bath!

There is always some cute little ‘lost in translation’ weirdness.

Pre-dinner soak and saké time…

Feeling so relaxed as we dressed to go down to dinner… it’s actually really nice to get clean and sort of dress ‘down’ to go to dinner rather than dress ‘up’!

We were a little early for dinner so took a wander around the lobby area and had a poke through the gift shop. Gunma-chan, lots of local plum sweets and things, and these interesting long long scrolls that I haven’t seen in shops here before… they have seasonal designs on them and a couple with Chinese zodiac symbols, are made of lush fabric and appear to be hand painted and weighted; presumably so they don’t fly around in the breeze too much.

The restaurant is directly below our room, and is the same space we had meals in last night.

I think this display had changed from yesterday…

Funoataki Premium Junmai – Shibasaki Sake Brewery in Yoshioka. Love the cups.

The meal started with a yuzu aperitif and appetisers of: Braised mushrooms with chrysanthemum petals; Shrimp and duck loin stew; Princess Turban shell pumpkin Castello; Salmon and cream cheese roll; Taro dengakuji.

Sea soup: bream, anpei white maitake mushrooms and stalk vegetables. This was absolutely delicious – just a really light and flavourful broth.

Sashimi course: tuna, scallops, flounder, button shrimp.

Simmered dish: steamed tilefish.

Strong Joshu beef shabu-shabu… Joshu is the traditional name of the Gunma prefecture, and the beef of this region is particularly famous. Though I am starting to think they all say that… the Gifu prefecture would say their Hida beef is the most famous, the Kobe beef… it’s all amazing if you ask me!

Shabu-shabu paired with ponzu and sesame sauces… the ponzu was delicious paired with the beef, I found the sesame was extremely tasty but also quite a strong flavour that overpower the meat somewhat.

Steamed shark fin.

All served with noodles, rice and pickles.

There are noodles in this dish under all the yummy vegetables.

Dessert: Melon and Kyoto persimmon… our waiter told us a local saying ‘When persimmon is red, doctor’s face is white’. It’s effectively ‘an apple a day keeps the doctor away’, becasue the more red the persimmon, the higher the vitamin C content; eat lots of persimmon and send your doctor broke!

As I was going through these I realised I am taking an awful lot of photos of food… I kinda can’t help myself. Once upon a time I studied to be a creative advertising photographer and now when I see such carefully styled food, I just have to take a photo! “The camera eats first!” I should get that translated into Latin.

A few pics of Ikaho at night… some taken from our balcony, some from in town.

After dinner it was back upstairs to let our dinner settle before having another lovely soak in the bath before an early night… so lucky to be here for another night after this! No second guessing who has leaned into the saké tonight!

Woke up to this gorgeous pre-dawn light! Just glorious! Mt Akagi, Mt Myogi and Mt Haruna in the distance…

You know what? I don’t know which is which and probably have been listing them out of order!

Breakfast was another delicious affair of fresh local produce… I really could get used to this, which is odd given I am a skip breakfast kinda person at home normally.

Salmon, Tamago, rice and pickles, salads, miso soup, yoghurt, fruit… lots of delicious healthy things.

Tamago, grated yam, salad.

Salmon and tofu (below)… I always get Mr K’s mushrooms!

Miso soup with the little baby clams… I don’t know if you’re just supposed to just drink the soup and leave the little clams, or am I supposed to be there working the clams out with my chopsticks!

Fresh Japanese pears.

Today we spent the day alternatively working, hoping in the onsen, drinking saké, and watching the world fucking burn… it is just utterly unfuckingbelievable. By the end of the day I was having trouble believing that there are any intelligent, competent, compassionate or sensible people left in the world. It has been a truly troubling day that left me feeling really unsettled and shaking my head in disbelief.

Because we were in for the whole day working, we chose not to have the staff service the room, when we did surface, we discovered they had left us a trolley full of fresh bathrobes, towels, onsen towels, tabi socks, tea no coffee resupplies, and some refreshed snacks! When you put out the ‘do not disturb’ in Western hotels, you‘re lucky if they even remember you are there!

We’ve really enjoyed our stay at Oyado Tamaki – it’s a beautiful ryokan with a blend of traditional and modern elements. Western beds if you want them, low Japanese furniture, comfortable rooms, amazing onsen baths, and incredible Japanese kaiseki meals… each night seemingly outdoing the night before. I can’t recommend it enough. And with breakfast being so substantial, we skipped lunch knowing we had another lovely meal coming this evening.

This food is so beautiful plated, I couldn’t *not* take pictures, though I had intended to just leave off.

Aperitif: Yuzu liqueur… with dinner, I chose a glass of lightly yuzu saké. I couldn’t risk Kazushi’s (our waiter the last three night) and his look of concern and/or approbation by ordering a whole 300ml of saké all to myself again!

How beautiful is this? The appetisers were a light dash broth, some additional sashimi – very unusual but the staff had been making a fuss about our three night stay and seems the chef also seemed to think a three night stay was important.

Soup bowl: sea urchin, white onion, daikon radish, ginger and abalone. *chefs kiss*… magic!

Sashimi course: tuna and flounder slices.

Boiled Unagi Hakata – so named because the design made by the layered unagi looks like a hakata obi belt… absolutely delicious! I’ve never had unagi prepared like this before and it was really light and so tasty.

Famous Matsutake mushrooms, served with rice, miso soup and pickles.

Mushroom and pork hot pot.

Dessert course featured Warabimochi (matcha mochi served with a thick molasses like syrup), fresh pears and crème brûlée.

Gochisōsamadeshita!

Dinner was followed by another terribly tedious night of having to soak away our troubles in the onsen!

Add enough saké until the eyes sparkle was the order of the evening… honestly, it seems the only sensible way to deal with the sense of impending doom that was suddenly pervading our trip. There have been plenty of horrors this day, and so much hate, negativity and disappointment in the media… but hopefully we can put the angst behind us as quickly as possible, and worry about the fall out when we get home.

Woke up early to discover a gorgeous colourful skies over the mountains! Simply glorious.

#NoFilter – on the mountains that is… the selfies are always kawaii filtered here.

I noticed a town worker outside diligently cleaning the steps that the golden onsen waters run down in the middle of the Stone Steps Street – he obviously has the power to turn off the water!

Then it was time for final breakfast before we checked out from Oyado Tamaki. Glorious view from the restaurant this morning.

If you’ve ever been looking at quality Japanese crockery items before, you’ll know that this assortment of small plates, bowls, pinch pots and dishes are worth hundreds for everyone in here. It’s all so carefully curated. I really appreciate the attention to detail that the Japanese put to small details.

Tuna, chicken dumpling, beef in our breakfast salad today.

Butterfish… I’m not sure I’ve had this before, but it was light and soft, with a texture like salmon; prepared with light miso flavours, it was delicious.

I’m getting quite a fondness for Japanese pickles with good quality Niigata rice… I’m going to have to start stocking up more to take home seeing I’m declaring them anyway!

Sadly, (after two more soaks in the onsen), it was time to pack up and move on to Shibukawa for work for the day, which often means emptying the fridge. Normally this would involve packing up some beers and saké to take to our next abode… on this occasion, I found a lonely puddling that needed consuming before we left. Famous Ikaho mid-morning pudding? Yikes! Oh well, I guess that is what holidays are for, thankfully Mr K managed most of it.

The lovely landlady, whose name I wasn’t able to catch, saw us off with a lovely gift. She made comments several times that it was special it was for people to stay with them for three nights and how thrilled she was to have us – and to be honest if you have the time and the money, it was totally worth it! The Dinner No.3 was spectacular with all the stops pulled out in the Japanese delicacies department. I thanked her using Google Translate, telling her that we had such a a lovely stay, that they inn is extremely comfortable, the dinners were amazing and the staff were very friendly and welcoming and she was just delighted. She even insisted on taking our photo before we left.

I can thoroughly recommend this ryokan for a traditional Japanese ryokan experience, with very few international tourists around. We loved everything about it.

Ikaho Onsen – Oyado Tamaki HORAI

Posted on 5 November 2024 by boryssnorc

We decided to spend three nights in Ikaho, which it turns out is practically unheard of… no one comes to Ikaho for three nights. Foreigners in particular very rarely come to Ikaho at all let alone stay three nights, (we saw only two other western tourists the entire three days we were there), but even the Japanese tourists who come to visit Ikaho never come and stay three nights in Ikaho apparently!

However, we had work to do and so we planned for a three night stay. Only problem was – it was seriously near impossible to find a place with three consecutive nights accomodation available, so I ended up choosing one ryokan and booking one night in one type of room and two nights in another. It might have been different if I could read or speak Japanese, which might have meant I could have contacted establishments directly a little easier, but using their (all Japanese and not easy to translate, websites) or trying affiliate sites like the dreaded booking dot com or Agoda or Japanican … it worked out easier to book direct and just suck it up that we would be changing rooms.

It ultimately worked out really well. The staff at Oyado Tamaki were so so wonderfully attentive because we were staying for three nights! It was quite a big deal for them to have us stay so long… it was actually really cute. The landlady in particular was especially friendly, welcoming and appreciative.

Oyado Tamaki is a wonderful blend of traditional Japanese ryokan with Western comfort, without going overboard with the Western elements so as to lose the Japanese culture that you come fro in the first place. There was a lovely comfortable lobby and bar area where we were welcomed with yuzu tea and a snack. Again, the Japanese love of viewing/engaging with nature was evident in the design of these public spaces as the lounge seating is arranged with large picture windows to overlook a gorgeous Japanese garden.

Our first night was in a ‘Horai’ Western style room with a cypress indoor bath.

The room genkan was a spacious and welcoming space where you could put all your luggage… as is rapidly becoming the norm, we left our shoes at the genkan to the ryokan, where we were given slippers to wear around the ryokan, where we arrived at the room to find other slippers to wear in our room, and I bet there are different slippers for the toilet too!

His and hers… quite often though, ‘His’ won’t fit Western men with large feet!

Our room was a very tastefully decorated space with an incredibly high ceiling and views over the base of the famous Ikaho Stone Steps.

It had a comfortable sitting area where we could see the sunrise/sunset and this turned into a nice spot to work.

Welcome snacks… local Gunma mochi and some barley crackers.

The ceiling in this rooms was impressive, it must have been 16’ high, and with it’s timber spokes and fabric-like design, felt oddly Turkish…?

Mr K always appreciates a hotel room with a decent desk – I don’t know what’s going on in contemporary western hotel design, but the ‘desk’ seems to often be some 40cm wide thing that is inconveniently under a massive television and you can barely sit a laptop on it, so would more accurately be described as a ‘shelf’. You can’t work on those stupid things.

All the furniture in this ryokan from the lobby to the rooms, felt like it all had stories to tell, like it had been deployed in different configuration for decades, but was lovingly used and worn and even revarnished and repaired… not quite antique, but not slick IKEA modern either. It felt comfortably lived in.

We found comfortable yukata, tabi socks, onsen towels, and a sewing kit among the room’s amenities.

And then in the closet, we were also provided with Hanten coats, and even more yukata in a range of different sizes (by height), so it was easy to find something comfortable to fit.

The kitchenette nook was well equiped with tea, green tea and coffee making facilities. Also a fridge full of complimentary beer, juices soft drink and water. I do love how they look after you and there is no minibar price list in sight.

After so many open air baths, this was quite different. The bath was long and deep and definitely large enough for two with a view out a near window of some beautiful autumn leaves towards the mountains.

The propensity here for going completely overboard on the individually packaged ammenities is still rather puzzling… surely Japanese travellers bring *some* toiletries and things with them when they travel. I’m not sure why they provide quite so much disposable stuff; the packaging alone is enough to make you look at it with concern. We very rarely open any of it.

The bright orange towel warmer felt oddly out of place, but at the same time was extremely welcome! It was starting to get cold up here in the mountains. Hanging your massive fluffy bathrobe up on a towel warmer while you are in the bath is like the epitome of luxury.

Indoor bath saké just doesn’t have the right feels about it… can’t quite put my finger on why.

I had seen in my research that this ryokan was known for its excellent kaiseki meals, so was really looking forward to dinner.

Unexpectedly, we saw this wonderful display of local saké at the entrance to the restaurant. We have found in some places, they are putting more and more focus on Western wines over local sakés, which no doubt it to cater to the domestic tourists who see the imported wines as exotic and elegant, but as a foreign tourist, we are all about wanting to try the local sakés – which I know is quite unusual. Lots of foreigner visitors never get a taste for saké.

The Autumn menu looked absolutely amazing! Everything so beautifully presented, and lovingly created. It was called the ‘Shimotsuki Menu’, and started with appetisers of: Marinated mackerel; Smoked daikon radish and cheese, Purple lily root; Kusunoki crystal egg yolk; Roe with kelp. And a soup made of: Chasen eggplant, yukiwaritake mushroom, shirareitake mushroom.

I ordered a saké tasting flight and surprised absolutely no one when the junmai daiginjo was my favourite.

We were also served a ‘special dish’ that was not on the menu: shrimp, pickles, knotted mushrooms and a small crab cake cooked on lava stone.

Sashimi course: Kina, Iwana fresh water fish, a selection of tuna, Hakojima, and some carp sashimi.

Handmade steamed tofu with famous autumnal Matsutake mushrooms, Fukurutake mushrooms, crab meatball, maple leaf lotus root, chrysanthemum sauce and fresh shrimp. I love these steamed dishes at this time of year, so warming and often packed full of subtle and delicious umami flavours.

Silk salmon in autumn flower arrangement; autum fruits and nuts, apple and fig, roasted chestnuts stewed in honey, deep fried ginko nuts.

Joshu Akagi beef steak, sweet pepper, petal mushroom, and ponzu sauce.

Joshu local chicken steamed with abalone, shrimp, Anpel Kujo green onion. Served with local Koshihikari Niigata rice, pickles and miso soup.

Soy milk tofu with pear, and muscat grapes, served with green tea for dessert.

Gochisōsamadeshita! Dinner was absolutely lovely. It really is nice to have a delicious Japanese meal provided for you at the ryokan and you don’t have to get dressed and go out to find dinner.

After dinner, I went for a wander around the ryokan to see what I could find and hopefully find the public onsens empty so I could capture a few images – us tattoo’d folks aren’t allowed in the public onsens; it’s a terrible shame to have to be consistently booking the rooms with a private bath. Woe is us!
Admittedly, it is always the more expensive option, but at least I know I won’t be breaking any cultural taboos or making people uncomfortable.

First thing I found though was a saké cellar! With a sign outside saying, ‘Come fill a cup for ¥500. Nice! There was quite a fancy selection in the cellar an half a dozen in the fridge to help yourself on an honesty system, where you can just write down what you have had for the landlady.

The women’s onsen was deserted so I had a quiet look around. There was plenty of space in the dressing rooms for changing and storing your things while you bathed.

Numerous spaces to shower yourself before getting into the onsen baths.

I found one small outdoor onsen for a group of friends to enjoy and larger onsens as well.

Ikaho Onsen is famous for having two types of rare hot spring water. The first is “Kogane no Yu” an is the golden hot spring water. The Golden onsen water is rich in iron which causes the water to become a rich yellowish/brown colour when it comes into contact with oxygen. These waters are believed to offer many health benefits, particularly for women. The Kogane no Yu is said to also have healing effects on medical ailments including skin issues like cuts and burns.

The second water is the “Shirogane no Yu” and is known as the silver hot spring water, which is a relatively newer hot spring to the area. It is said to have natural moisturising components that help smooth and refresh this skin. This is the type of water in our room’s onsen, and I fully believe it – my skin has never felt so soft!

I also found a small area set up for small children to bathe in more temperate appropriate baths. The water temperature at this onsen is quite high, so you find yourself having multiple short baths each day rather than long soaking baths.

For what is normally a busy town full of domestic tourists, Ikaho is rather quiet at night… there are clubs and restaurants around, but I wonder if most visitors are all happily tucked in, enjoying the hospitality of their ryokan inns.

Woke up unhappily before the sunrise; was rewarded with this beautiful quality light though.

Mt Akagi, Mt Myogi, and Mt Haruna are out here somewhere… though not sure which elevation is which. If these names sounds familiar, it could be because the beef in Japan seems to carry the same name as the mountain it was raised on. Regional naming protocols no doubt.

Breakfast was served near a large picture window overlooking the beautiful Gunma scenery.

Wow! All the breakfast deliciousness.

Rice with assorted pickles, yuba, and salted seaweed.

Pear jelly, salad and mushroom miso soup, and a lovely piece of fresh salmon. Amazing fresh produce for breakfast.

I am loving this Oyado Tamaki, it is a fabulous ryokan… and we have two more nights here moving into a different room today.

Takasaki – Ryutakuzenji Ryokan

Posted on 4 November 2024 by boryssnorc

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!

Hakone onsen – Hotel Okada

Posted on 2 November 2024 by boryssnorc

Something a little different – Yale and I spent tonight in a large hotel rather than a small intimate ryokan. It’s a completely different experience, and yes, at a completely different price point! So I thought it would be interesting to make the comparison and see what your extra $250-300 a night gets you; roughly the difference in cost between this place, the Hotel Okada, and last two night’s ryokan accomodation rates.

With 117 rooms on 12 floors and a maximum occupancy of some 650 people, the ambiance of the hotel is nice, still very Japanese in the decor, but things are far less personal as soon as you arrive. Starting with what feels like a bit of haggling over somewhere to park.

The kumiko timber-work in the lobby makes for an impressive entrance. And straight away it feels strange not to have to take off my shoes… but I imagine keeping 600 people’s shoes straight would be a bit too much!

Yukata are available in foyer if you wish to borrow something other than what is provided in the rooms. Which is pretty handy if you are either, fuller figured like myself, or 6’9” like Yale. The check-in procedure was a little more involved too, I guess with so many people comes bureaucracy.

Our room for the evening was on the 4th floor, was a booking type, “SUISAI”; a Japanese/Western style room with open air bath… Yamabato (not sure what that means). I noticed the kumiko timber work touches are carrying on throughout the hotel.

The genkan (room foyer) was very clean and welcoming, with half a dozen pairs of slippers! I guess this is bookable as a family room, so more slippers the merrier.

Bags to take your things to the public onsen – which we definitely did not use, as this is a 100% not tattoo friendly facility. The hotel is very family oriented, and as such definitely, ‘NO TATTOOS!’

Our room had two western beds, a sofa, a Japanese tatami sitting area with another small couch and chair.

Large TV (which we never turn on because you can rarely even get the BBC World News in English in hotels here, and everything else is not just foreign but also strange and foreign). We have coffee and tea making facilities, small bar fridge and all the needful things.

I’m always pleased to find a range of glassware – so I can find something suitable to take my saké into the onsen with me without having to use teacups or resort to swigging from the bottle! We were also provided with pyjamas, bright and comfortable hanten coats, and some lovely navy yukatas.

The lighting and decor is very warm and comfortable… compared to many large western hotels which tend to feel like you’ve walked into a fucking IKEA – so I love this!

The sitting space is surrounded by large picture windows to allow for views of the mountain stream outside… I have over the recent years come to appreciate just how much Japanese domestic tourists value being able to feel as though they are ‘enveloped by nature’. Living in the large cities like Tokyo or Osaka and to a lesser degree Kyoto, it must be common for them to spend most of their lives in a the concrete jungle glitzed up with loads of neon and animated and noisy talking street lights, train barriers and even toilets! Seeking out gardens in Japanese cities takes time and effort, compared to Australian cities which are heavily designed with green spaces everywhere in both the inner cities and the suburbs. The Japanese have a keen appreciation and connection of being ‘in nature’ and find it calming and restorative to be surrounded by the changing seasons.

The bedroom is warm and Japanese, the toilet could be Danish!

The bathroom is also bright and modern with all the amenities you could possibly want. His and hers washcloths, lotions and potions, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, cotton buds, hair bands, razors and more.

The hairdryer looked like something from a sci-fi film! Which I am sure is impressive to the hairdryer obsessed Japanese vloggers! The showering/washing room was very nice too… bit warmer with timber and slate.

And of course, the piece de resistance! The open air bath… smashing! The design and lighting in this space is gorgeous! You can see straight into the tatami sitting area though, so if you had a family here, you might need to draw the curtains.

First things first, always barely unpack, have a shower and straight into the onsen… pure bliss! Hakone Mountain Road saké – not bad.

Dinner here is buffet style, which I imagine is where the price reduction is going to be evident. The Sky Lounge on the 7th Floor is where our allocated buffet dining is… the hotel is quite large and has more than one large dining room.

I didn’t want to take photos of people eating their meals or hovering around the buffet – so I plucked this image off the internet. Let’s just say this promotional image is doing some heavy lifting. The room was large, bright, noisy and not even remotely as orderly looking as this image implies.

Food choices were odd… there were lots of hot boxes, with various foods in them, but no vegetables available that weren’t sitting in stews? Which made a lot of the veggies look like my grandma boiled them, or they’re the leftover bits from Asian dishes after everyone came along and took the meat out! I did find some nigiri which was nice and fresh and the rice was lovely, but the rest of this, was all a bit hit and miss; temperature-wise nothing was quite right – hot foods a little too not hot, and I couldn’t find the right accompaniments to any dish. So dinner was a hasty affair.

After a very quick dinner (oh dear lord it was so noisy in there!), it was back to the onsen to relax.

Next morning we had moody mountains, a light drizzle and the rushing river below our window.

Breakfast was another noisy affair that I would have preferred to make avoidable if possible. I can understand the appeal of staying in a large hotel like this if you are bringing the family away for a weekend and were after a more affordable option, but seeing how far we have a travelled, I definitely prefer the smaller ryokans at this point.

And we exit through the gift shop…!