Tag Archives: ryokan

Shima Onsen

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What a glorious day! It’s about 13C with gorgeous blue skies, we are headed from Minakami to Lake Okushima. Lake Okushima is a reservoir lake that was created when the Shimagawa Dam was built between 1980 and finished in 1999.

I’m not sure what is causing these cloud formations, but they’re quite striking.

Even this little public restroom is designed to suit the area; this gorgeous little ginko tree that I imagine will be a striking huge tree in due course and some Japanese maples planted around it turn a boring toilet block into a cute looking cottage.

If you can encircle your car park with glorious autumn foliage, why wouldn’t you?

There were some stunning views and lots of lookout points to take advantage of them, on the short drive around the lake. We seem to have finally found some autumn colours.

Akazawa Bridge:

Mr K is enamoured with the local mascots – he loves this little Gunmachan guy, and pointed him out in his little escavator numerous times. ‘Construction work is underway, to widen the existing road!’, and yet, so much more informative for having a cute mascot impart the information.

The Shimagawa Dam is 330m long and 90m high… it’s quite impressive. I wasn’t super impressed with the large bullhorns visible at the top of the dam. Are those for sirens to let people below know if there’s a problem? At the moment the water level is so low as to be irrelevant, but if the water in the dam was high, I can’t imagine a sudden release would be good for Shima Onsen downstream from here.

Shima Hinatami Park below the dam, we went down there after leaving the drive around the dam and Lake Okushima.

Gunmachan directing traffic, I think. ‘Construction work is underway, cleaning the lake surface. We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation.’

The Ochiai Street Bridge over the Shima River… right beside the bridge was an unagi restaurant! Ooh, a small unagidon would be nice for lunch. We will have to check that out.

Self portrait with running water over rocks…

This is the most famous ryokan in Shima Onsen – Sekizenkan Kashoutei and it is considered the “Spirited Away” ryokan. I considered booking us to stay here, it has great reviews and is very well known. However, it is mostly known for its large Roman style onsen baths – and for whatever reason, I didn’t really feel the need to seek out Roman style baths in Japan? You can see the high rounded arched windows from the onsens underneath the ryokan. No, I’m here for the Japanese ambiance… I want the places with the more traditional Japanese riverside baths; they’re extremely picturesque. So I found us somewhere a little quieter down the gorge in the Lower Shima area where many of the older, more traditional ryokans line the riverside. Sorry Spirited Away ryokan, maybe some other time.

Photo of the Roman style baths snavelled from the internet: It’s lovely, I’m just not sure why…?

Show me a red bridge in Japan and I’ll show you a line of tourists (Japanese and Western) lined up to take selfies on it! I just want a tiny short break in the traffic to take a quick photo with no people in it!! It’s so hard sometimes.

We haven’t seen anywhere near as many tanuki statues in Gunma as we saw in Gifu last year… I wonder if there’s something local cultural thing going on there.

There’s not a lot going on in this sleepy little town – I think all the visitors are comfortably tucked in at their ryokans enjoying the onsens. We spied a pottery studio where you could go to do classes, and like one gift shop, and a single konbini – but it’s definitely a quiet sort of place.

Shio no yu – there are several hot spring drinking fountains scattered throughout Shima, the Shionoyu (literal translation: salty hot water) fountains are thought to help alleviate a variety of health conditions.

Keiunbashi Pocket Park? I was a bit confused as to what exactly is a pocket park? But when I saw this quiet little green space smooshed in amongst restaurants, cafes, ryokans and 1950s game arcades, I was enamored of the concept. More pocket parks for the people!

Kawara no yu is a public onsen precariously situated on some rocks in a fork of the Shimagawa River right in the middle of town, directly below a bus stop. It is a well known iconic building due to its distinctive round shape. It has very old school, cozy, gender separated baths. It’s free to use this facility, it is kept by the town, and I believe there is a donation box. It’s tiny – only accommodates four or so people in either side, and possibly tattoo friendly if your company doesn’t mind.

We are totally on the hunt for lunch now.

This statue was rotating left and right – I took a short video and will have to upload it at some point when I have decent internet… I don’t know why, but it looked just, weird: little statue of a lady in a kimono with a tray of onsen buns to let you know this is a public onsen, presumably one selling steamed buns!

We had passed by a number of very touristic looking restaurants as we wandered through town – one unagi place that had me drooling, but also doing a solid bit of side eye at the ¥4100 price for a meal there – and that’s before you hit the saké list! We kept walking, looking for a more local izakaya – you know the type of place, mismatched furniture, no English menus, cheap but hearty meals and even cheaper saké; somewhere the locals might eat. We found this place tucked in around a corner from the onsen (above), and decided to check it out. Meals ranged from about ¥1200-1700, which is far less tourist priced imo, so we decided to stop in and check it out… I’ve walked in and said to Mr K, I have a feeling about this, I’m going to need some photos so I can tell people where it is! Asunaro – a small syoduko and teishoku restaurant (syoduko: casual restaurant with inexpensive Japanese dishes; teishoku: has set menus which contain meat/seafood plus rice, miso soup and pickles).

The place definitely had a vibe – the owners two goldfish fish tanks in the foyer complete with pond scum certainly set the tone. The TV set noisily to a local sporting game likewise let you know you’re walking into someone’s primary place of residence – or at the very least a place where they spent the bulk of their day, such that ambient dining music was the last thing on the minds of the staff. 🙂

The menu was actually quite extensive, but first things first, saké because it was cold out and a bit of alcohol on an empty stomach usually helps with such things.

It was when ordering that we discovered the extensive menu was a bit of a lie. The sour plum pork cutlet was not available, then a second choice dish was also not available, so Mr K ended up ordering the ‘House Specialty Rice’ dish, which came with rice, chicken, egg, nori, spring onions, pickled mushrooms, and dashi broth… with the instructions to mix it all together and wait for the rice to absorb the broth, then ‘nom, nom, nom’. No shit, the landlady said: “Nom, nom, nom!” 🤣

I ordered the miso pork cutlet set – I’m a sucker for anything cooked drowning in miso, so was sure I was on a winner. Thankfully, it was available today… way too much food for lunch though: rice, pork, three small bowls of pickles and miso soup.

Hmmm… Miso pork cutlet? Where’s the miso? Ooooh… there’s the miso. Layered inside the cutlet! OMG – so much umami goodness! More saké for the people; this is definitely where we parked our car!

Banger of a lunch stop! Highly recommend that one – and would totally go there again even if half the menu was unavailable. Mr K said the Specialty Rice dish was also delicious.

After lunch we had a bit more of a walk around town to see the river and the lay out of the town.

Bus stop… Deer? Sheep? Not 100% sure…

Across the river from our ryokan is a strange hexagonal building which turned out to be a public footpath. No, FOOT BATH… not footpath stupid autocorrect.

Shima Onsen is a quaint and rather quiet sleepy little onsen town once you get removed from the one touristy street.

A bit later, Mr K went out hunting for snacks, and came back with a haul purchased like a kid buying shit for a road trip! If it had Pokémon on it, or a Great Wave motif – he bought it… no need to translate, he’ll deal with the weirdness later! The Cheeza crackers were actually kinda tasty – the rest of it… oy!

I’m not sure how, but Japan manages to be the land of the highest quality food with the strictest food quality regulations and laws around food additives… and yet it is also the land of the weird arse, more styrofoam than food, barely edible, snack products! On the other hand, they do have cups of tea and corn soup in a can – purchasable hot from vending machines, so mabye that makes up for the weird snacks.

Minakami Onsen – Keisetsu no Yano Syoubun

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We had originally planned on making our way to either Joetsu or Niigata on this trip, but decided to stick to the mountains of Gunma. There are four major onsen towns in Gunma, and I planned our route to hit them all – Ikaho, Minakami, Shima and Kusatsu. Kusatsu is the most popular one, and the one most likely to be frequented by foreign tourists apparently. Anyway, this is how Minakami ended up on our route.

Accomodations are plentiful in these towns, and they’re generally not too far form the important integrated transport infrastructure that we are here to check out, so it works out well to stay somewhere like this rather than a chain hotel… bit more culturally relevant and interesting all round.

Syoubun is a traditional Japanese ryokan set in a wooden building that is typical of Japanese architecture. It is a relaxed inn with hot springs, located 10kms from Mount Tanigawa (popular during the ski season) and only 2kms from the trains etc., we need to see at Yubiso Station. The reception was very warm and welcoming – it’s getting quite chilly outside at the moment; 15C down to about 6C at night… well chilly for Aussies anyway.

The reception was charming – exposed rough cut timber beams with lots of wood everywhere, the entire ryokan smelled of timber.

After briefly dropping out things in our room, we went exploring the ryokan – there is a wonderful airy lounge that is surrounded on both side with large picture windows into gardens. It’s a very relaxing space.

There was also a ‘happy hour’ of sorts between 3pm check-in times and 6pm, where guests can help themselves to a variety of teas, coffees, shochu, saké, juices and sparkling wine.

We were sharing a lovely (if very sweet!) glass of sparkling wine when I spotted this newspaper… yes, the entire mess is just as depressing in kanji as it is in English.

Oh well, we are doing our best to try not to watch too closely, I’m sure the coming years will bring more than enough horror, we don’t have to start engaging with it while we are travelling.

From a wide open corridor, was this unassuming sliding door which led to our room. We were in the INAKA suite.

The genkan (entry/foyer) was huge, and thoughtfully decorated with lovely fresh flowers and a helpful timber ramp to roll your suitcases in, or perhaps make the room accessible (though the rest of the room wasn’t exactly wheelchair friendly).

The genkan opened into a western style dining room, which turned out to be extremely handy as we spent most of a day working at this table. Hotel tables and desks are notoriously small, and in Japan, they might be 40cm off the ground! So we were grateful for this space. 🙂

Some onsen buns – plain with red bean paste, and slightly bitter chocolate and red bean paste options. I am not normally fond of red bean, but I must be getting accustomed to it, as the texture didn’t turn me off like it usually does.

Our room had huge pieces of polished and varnished natural timbers adding to the interior decor – it was incongruously sleek and modern, whilst at the same time having a traditional old world warmth and charm about it.

Great little corner of amenities! Coffee and tea making facilities, thermos full of ice and cold water, as well as an empty fridge for a change so we didn’t need to put aside the hotel’s beers and strange juices to fit in all my saké acquisitions. 😀

Off the dining room was a balcony leading to an inner courtyard garden, it was a beautiful and quiet space looking into the carefully well kept garden, but slightly cold for lingering outdoors at the moment!

The main bedroom was also a sitting room, with two armchairs facing a television. These chairs can be moved aside and futons brought in if there are more than two people booked in the space.

I was super happy with the beds here, the firmer the better in my opinion, but Mr K isn’t too keen on hard mattresses.

More of the striking timber decorative pieces – these ones twisted and gnarled together. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before – very unusual.

Samue and Hanten coats for use around the ryokan… always much appreciated.

Even though our room came with samue (Japanese pyjamas) and sleeveless hanten coats provided, there was also a collection of brightly coloured yukata for guests, to use should they choose.

The bathroom was divided into four spaces – a toilet, a bathroom with sinks for doing your hair and make up etc, a dressing space for coming or going to the baths, and an outside space for washing before using the private onsen bath on the balcony.

The toilet above – quite a high end Japanese toilet with all the bells and whistles. I forget until I am in-country how much I appreciate the warmed toilet seats here. They don’t feel so great in mid-summer, and I imagine they’d feel awful back home, but when the weather is turning, along with the leaves, a warmed seat in the middle of the night is always a nice touch. Man, I’m getting soft in my old age… I’m almost certain there are descriptions in this blog somewhere of The Worst Toilet in a Turkish Internet Cafe Ever!

The outdoor wash room for bathing before getting into the onsen; it is all timber and smells like being ain a large cypress box!

The private open air bath. AMAZING! Haven’t met an open air onsen bath that I haven’t like yet, and don’t imagine I will. There’s nothing quite like sinking into the water at the end of a long day and just feeling all the tension and pain just leave your body.

Baths and saké… it’s turning into our little tradition everywhere we go. The spring water here is so clear, you can hardly see where the edge of the water is.

One of the draws of Syoubun was their advertised ‘mountain sourced kaiseki dinner’. All the food is said to be sourced locally, and considered warming ‘mountain food’. We had a small private dining room which was actually outside the main restaurant area.

But first, we thought we should try out the locally made Tanigawadake Junmai Daiginjyo-shu. It was lovely and refreshing, crisp without being dry, with floral hints.

Autumn menu…

Roasted Ginko; Figs in sesame sauce; Mugi pork Shigureni; Nanbanzuke mushrooms; Persimmon cream cheese.

Eggplant tempura.

Salt-grilled Iwana fish – a clear water river fish that feeds on moss and algae which flies it a cool fragrance. It is considered a light and rustic flavour that can be prepared deep fried, grilled with salt or cooked on rice in a pot. These are reared locally in Minakami.

Joshu beef toban-yaki, served with ponzu, spring onions with grated daikon radish, and fresh grated wasabi.

Seasonal stew of taro, rice, ginkgo nuts, shiitake mushrooms, topped with bean paste.

Yamamoto hot pot – fresh vegetables, tofu, mushrooms and dashi broth. Minakami rice – provided by the expert in rice production in Minakami, Honda Yoshimitsu, prepared with chestnuts.

Stewed plums, pear slices and apple gelato, served with tea.

That was definitely a hearty meal – usually these kaiseki dinners are course after course of elegant sized tasting portions, but this felt a little more solid than usual! It was at least an hour before I was back in the onsen bath.

I’d like to say I slept like a log, but alas, not enough saké and a little too much snoring meant I didn’t sleep so great. A restorative morning bath in the onsen was definitely a bonus!

Mr K unable to decide between caffeinating or bathing and opting for the time saving effort of BOTH!

I really like this bath, it is large enough to be comfortable, and has a couple of different steps you can sit on if you wish to raise your head and shoulders higher (helpful if you’re starting to feel too hot). There is no mechanism to add cool water if you are finding it too hot though. Seems the more remote the ryokans, the less likely we are to find a temperature control – only too happy to keep researching to test this theory!

Breakfast and we were back in our little private dining room from the night before.

Simmered grated yam (in the covered bowl), steamed savoury egg custard with plum, and reduced ponzu sauce.

Steamed Minakami mushroom, lotus root, carrot and Ginger; Yoghurt and pear; Cold chicken; Freshly cooked salmon in miso; various pickles down the centre to have with the Minakami rice; Lotus root and mushroom dumpling, Tofu; Soft boiled egg and Miso Soup.

I love Japanese breakfast!

After breakfast we went to town, managed to get some work done and came back about 2pm, before the next evening’s guests had checked in. We thought we would check out some of the other private/family bathing areas in the ryokan – these baths tend to be larger, and can accomodate a larger group more easily, and are available for other guests who do not have a private bath in their suite.

The gardens here are beautiful. Although we have some serious language barriers when in Japan, we do make an effort to try and communicate with the people we encounter… it seems the young couple that are running this facility, and our waiter from last night is also the gardener as he as cleaning the garden and pruning some shrubs this afternoon.

While we were out – the flowers in our genkan were changed! Completely unnecessary, but lovely nonetheless.

The ryokan was not as busy tonight, and we found ourselves redirected into the larger restaurant area filled with small private dining rooms… Japan has been Covid friendly since long before the pandemic, socially distancing diners from one another for centuries!

All dining spaces were differentiated with a different bird sign. Our little Owl booth for the evening:

First things first of course – biru and some saké.

Tonight’s dinner was called “Hermit’s Cuisine!”

The Blessings of Okutone: Homemade chicken ham; Smoked cheese; Hotaka salmon, Shiitake mushroom; Butternut squash; Cauliflower; Romanesco paprika, Radish; Kohirabi red radish; Wasabi; Leaves served with char and milk sauce, mustard and malt sauce, and homemade butterbur miso.

Root vegetable soup, made with burdock, Jerusalem artichoke and taro.

Fried taro.

Deep fried, Iwana fish… I’ve never had a fish served like this before, it was extremely tasty, and even though it was deep fried, it wasn’t greasy at all.

Seasonal boiled dish of turnip in meat miso sauce! All the umami flavours. *chefs kiss*

Meat dish of Oze pork, with plum and miso jelly.

Mushroom hotpot! OMG I’ve never seen so many varieties of mushroom on one plate before: maitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, petal mushrooms, namely mushrooms, yukiwaritake mushrooms, and hiratake mushrooms… and none of them taste like the plain boring button mushrooms we tend to eat most of at home! <insert happy dance here>

Mushroom hotpot was served with Minakami kamameshi rice grown locally by Honda Yoshimitsu. It’s very important where the rice is sourced and is obviously a matter of great pride. High quality rice is served to guests with all the pomp of pulling out good caviar or with the flourish a waiter might make when offering a particularly good vintage of wine. It’s serious stuff here.

Dessert was a simple Persimmon and apple gelato… and I really do appreciate that desserts aren’t heavy chocolate on chocolate with a chocolate motif like they often are in western restaurants.

Mr K feeling very happy with his wash, even though he has no idea where we are or where we are going next! 😉

We went further exploring the ryokan after dinner… had to walk-off some of that mushroom somehow! The facility is much larger than either of us realised. Out the other side of the lounge area that we were using when we arrived, is a huge new wing of extra rooms and another family/private bath.

For a change, and possibly for Mr K’s sanity, I chose Western breakfast for us on the second morning of our stay at Syoubun. It turns out to possibly, maybe, kinda have been a bit of a mistake… I’ve come to appreciate the Japanese breakfast much more! This morning’s fare was a wedge of quiche, a small Weiner sausage, some salad, a couple of slices of tasty boar, egg salad, pears in yoghurt… all tasty, but just felt a bit heavy compared to the usual small portions of vegetables and fish, served with a wee bowl of rice.

Onion soup? Which had a gelatinous texture, not a French onion soup consumé type thing. Yuzu and apple smoothie that definitely was bulked out with some sort of green vegetable.

And a Chinese steamed bun? 🙂 Very strange breakfast all round, but an interesting experience nonetheless.

I loved the little chopstick rest – with a little, ‘kersplat’ cat… summed up how I felt after a rather poorly night sleep. Mr K isn’t keen on the Japanese fondness for hard mattresses and it seems to make him snore like a freight train! I swear I had barely 3.5hrs sleep last night and amongst me throwing things at him, he slept like a log.

Breakfast also contained a warmed bread roll and some hard butter and a very very sweet western jam, which made me feel like I was on a plane! 😀

Next stop we are onto Shimagawa… via town for work.

Ikaho Onsen – Oyado Tamaki MOKUREN

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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. 🙂

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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

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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

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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!