Kitanokaze Saryou is an adults only ryokan in Hakone… but ‘adults only’ they mostly mean they don’t particularly cater for young children, but we saw one couple here with an infant, so I don’t think it’s a hard and fast policy or anything. From the outside, the ryokan looks really unassuming.
This is an intimate luxury ryokan with only 10 guest rooms nestled in amongst the Hakone Botanical Gardens. There are no communal onsen baths here, as every guest room has a private bath – so it’s totally tattoo friendly in your room. Even though there are only 10 guest rooms, the public spaces like the reception and the lobby are quite spacious and beautifully appointed.
At first I thought this artwork was a painting, but on closer inspection I discovered it was an embroidery! very impressive.
The lounge in the lobby overlooks a meticulous cultivated Japanese garden. One day I’ll do some research into what the different elements of gardening are here, so I can more fully appreciate the layout of these spaces.
Our room was called Shion on the second floor, called a ‘Sky Terrace Room’ with an open-air bath.
I loved the slipper arrangement – his and hers for in the ryokan and in the room.
We found some welcome treats in the room to greet us – some crispy tomato and cheese bamboo crackers and some sesame mochi, which I found out later was made in house. I’m not one for sweets
This room didn’t have the same traditional Japanese design elements to it – no cypress panels, no paper screens, but it did have a lovely fresh and modern decor, with carpets rather than tatami.
Yukata, samue, and hanten coats were all provided for our use, along with obi belts, tabi socks and bags for your onsen towels (even though there were no public onsens to take your towels to??).
The room was quite large – with a desk space, two armchairs, as well as the bedroom space and a huge balcony.
Tea and coffee, kettle, a selection of teas and different coffees and the fridge had some complimentary beer and cold green tea drinks.
We spent quite a bit of time using these comfy armchairs, and the balcony had heaps of space – it if was warmer, you might have spent time on the day bed outside, but not so much for us.
We were welcomed with a yuzu tea, and some sakura wagashi sweets.
The bathroom was a goodly size and extremely well appointed – again with the more amenities than you can poke a stick at! We were never going to use a fraction of the toiletries and things they provide: razors, shower caps, cotton buds, dental kits, you name it, it’s here.
Bathroom has a large indoor bath that fills with onsen water also – I assume so you can use it if it’s raining or snowing perhaps, and you don’t want to use the open air bath? Looks like a good space to commit a gruesome murder. Needless to say, we didn’t use this space at all.
The huge balcony with outdoor shower and the open-air bath! Complete with peep hole through to the treetops of a thick bamboo forest.
Is it bad that I just want to run over and throw myself in the bath saying, ‘Mine! It’s all mine!’ Seriously, as a chronic pain sufferer, if there is any place in the world I would rather be than a fancy ryokan with a private bath soaking my stupid painful body; I can’t think of it.
A cheeky little Hakutsuru junmai saké acquired from the local Family Mart. 🙂 This was one of our favourite little saké breweries that we visited south of Osaka in 2019… and their little ¥400 reliably drinkable saké is available everywhere.
Dinner time…
Nice start to our meal, a plum wine cocktail – made with Ume plum wine, soda and frozen Nashi pear purée… delcious!
Japanese savoury egg custard soup, with Matustake mushrooms, shrimp, pike conger eels, ginko nut, Mistuba, Sudachi – combined with a dashi broth. Full of umami goodness.
Appetisers from left: Country pate made with Okhotsk port bacon; Cream cheese mousse with smoked kelp and roe; Bonito with flavoured vegetables; Jelly of sea bream; Steam abalone with foie gras pate; Japanese style salmon terrine.
Japanese kelp soup based with thin Izu thickened broth, snow crab, grilled shiitake mushrooms, Kujyo leeks and shredded yuzu.
Sashimi of shrimp, tuna, greenling, whelk, Atka mackerel and Maitake mushrooms and chrysanthemum leaves – served with home made soy sauce and home made grape wine vinegar and hop salt.
Smoked duck with balsamic – served under a bell of smoke… I took a video of the bell coming off, but it can wait until later.
Grilled beef with yuzu miso, served with a red wine and cassis sauce Kadayif. Abalone mushrooms , maple leaf shaped carrots, sweet potato, watercress and yuzu miso. This must have been one of the most delcious things I have ever had in my entire life! The flavours were incredible.
Simmered turnip with chrysanthemum flower paste, steamed and simmered sword fish, Momiji-fu and green beans.
Koji miso sou, Nameko mushrooms, Tofu and Mitsuba.
Kettle cooked rice: Seiten no Hekireki; famous rice provided from Aomori prefecture, a region known for it’s rice purity laws.
Served with pickled vegetables: Wasabi kelp, Enoki mushrooms marinated in Chinese style sauce, Nagaimo marinated with washable and sake lees, Winter melon pickled in tamari soy sauce, Chinese cabbage picketed with salted kelp and bonito flakes.
Homemake Japanese plum (Ume) ice cream; Mont Blanc pudding, Fig cheese tart, Grape Daihuku.
What an amazing dinner! We had a short wander around the ryokan after dinner, but with there being no public bathing areas, the communal spaces are more limited than normal. I do love the gardens here, they are very established and very beautiful – I guess that is one of the benefits of being in the Botanical Gardens.
In the morning, we were delivered a newspaper – neither of us could read it, but it’s the thought that counts, right? 🙂
Up early for blue skies, green bamboo swaying in a light breeze, and more dips in the onsen.
This bath is just about perfect – good size for two people, three if you’re close friends 😉 Has the ability to add cooled spring water if you are finding it too hot, and loads of space. Many private open air baths on balconies are small and in slatted rooms for privacy, but this is luxurious.
We chose a later breakfast time this morning so we could enjoy the room.
And this time we were guided to a different private dining room with a large picture window leading your view out into the gardens over breakfast.
I feel like there should be more moss growing on things around my house… but we live in the wrong climate for that!
Breakfast consisted of many of the usual things – Tamago, grilled salmon, stewed tofu, yuba, salted squid, picked vegetables and rice… and some dreaded Natto (fermented soy beans – yuk!).
Grilled salmon, Tamago, tuna sashimi.
Mystery soup! 🙂
Stewed tofu in an onion and mushroom broth.
I don’t need dessert at breakfast – but thankfully Yale never knocks back extra food.
Had another short wander around the ryokan in the daylight. It’s a beautiful modern complex, I’d stay here again.
Another bath… with some green tea. Afterwards, a quick skip through the gift shop – most ryokans have a small gift shop where you an pick up local delicacies that might have been on your plate, or craftswares that have been made by local artisans, gifts to take back to your co-workers and that sort of thing. We considered picking up a beep set, but sadly, we have no refrigeration.
Small waiting room near the reception – I’m not sure what this room would be used for, perhaps for very special guests who desire privacy when they are checking in. Unsure.
Whenever I try to take photos of the front of the ryokan, one of the staff will inevitably ask if I want my photo taken. I don’t usually want heaps of pictures of me from my travels – I know I was there, that’s enough for me – but it feels rude not to accept the offer!
Last Japanese selfie complete with obligatory cutesy filter. It’s tradition! 
This is the view from the ryokan’s riverside restaurant on the first floor… just beautiful.
The menu is predominantly Kawadoko cuisine in this part of Japan (not entirely sure what that means, but I am writing it down so I can hunt for it later). The starters were as impressively presented as they were flavoursome – there was an umeshu aperitif, sakiwan golden soup, boiled rockfish, pork hachimanmaki, forest boar liver, and tengyo nanban (I need to look that one up too!). 
We were also served some tempura seasonal vegetables with wasabi salt – I never thought I was overly fond of tempura…. in Australia it tends to feel heavy in oil, and the one time we went for tempura in Asakusa with a Japanese friend, Amané, she took us to her favourite and she claimed ‘best’ tempura restaurant in Asakusa and I honestly didn’t like it that much. But the ryokan meals we have had have served tempura that is light and delicate and doesn’t taste like heavy deep fried food at all.
We discovered that Izu is really well known for their fresh wasabi – and we also discovered, when you grate your own wasabi and not using the squishy over processed stuff you see most places, it is more flavourful and less hot. Very nice.
Dashi broth heating for our rice set course – 
The rice set came with more red fish, sesame, miso pickles, nori, wasabi, and coriander (thank you so much for the heads up on the devil’s weed!), then of course you pour some broth on once you have loaded up your rice.
Ta-da! Super tasty. They gave us a large pot of rice and said to call if we wanted more rice – but after such a large meal, I nearly had more condiments than rice in my donburi. 
Thankfully, with these multi course kaiseki meals, the dessert/sweet courses are usually simple and small… I say ‘thankfully’ because many Japanese abhor waste when it comes to food and it is considered rude not to clean your plate – if you are at a buffet and choosing food for yourself, it is VERY rude to take more than you will eat.
Looking very relaxed and chilled there Mr K. 
Waking up to this in the morning is something I could really get used to.
I’m getting used to cooking with the chopsticks and have even mastered removing the fish bones from the morning’s grilled fish offerings, with my chopsticks. 
The miso soup here was excellent – one thing travelling around to so many different areas throughout the country is you rapidly learn that not all miso soup is made equal! Nor is all curry or all ramen. 
They all look great and super uncomfortable in their samue… I’m sure a bit of saké will dispel the discomfort quick smart. 
There was also a savoury egg custard made from tortoiseshell and yuzu paste (?), and some grilled swordfish with magnolia leaves, but I got busy with the cooking of the hot pot and failed on the photos. 🙂 Dessert again was lovely and light and simple: almond pudding, with orange and local melon.
An impromptu work meeting transpired over saké…
Less so as the night went on… 🙂 
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One of the first things we navigated to get onto the roads we wanted was this impressive elevated spiral road system, called the Kawazu Nanadaru Loop Bridge, that brings traffic up or down a steep embankment that probably used to have very dangerous switchback roads. It’s located on Route 414 that connects Namuzu to Shimoda and is a 1km bit of road with a height of 45m and a diameter of only 80m… it corkscrews the traffic uphill counterclockwise and downhill clockwise and feels really weird as you get a 720 degree view as you go down through two full loops. 
We didn’t have to wait too long for it to go off, only about ten minutes, and I chose a safe place where the ground wasn’t wet to wait and take pictures. 
After leaving the 414 at Kawazu, we were spat out of the mountainous roads at Kawazu Beach. From here we would be following the coastal roads around the peninsula. 
Still beautiful, and nice they have gone to the trouble of planting palm trees to frame the view – why, people? 
Minamiizu, Kamo-Gun
The forest was beautiful and cool to drive through, lots of autumn colours sprinkled in amongst the trees.
