place in my dream...

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Kurokawa onsen is a beautiful place hidden in the mountains. It took us almost the whole day to drive there from Kirishima. The road was crazy. At one point there was a 720 degree turn. There are also local buses running from Aso city to Kurokawa which are not that frequent.

Kurokawa is a real onsen town. The whole town has nothing but ryokans. You can tell it's so tiny that the whole place can be explored in about 2 hours. But I also have to say it's my favorite onsen town so far. I like how it's so hidden and peaceful you just need to be in it to completely relax and not worry about anything outside.

Our accomodation is called Shinmeikan. It's a really nice ryokan, traditional style but super clean and neat at the same time. You have to cross a bridge to get into the ryokan and there is a creek running under the bridge. The dinner was served in a seperate dinning room. I got really excited when I saw the bbq on our table. Wow I didn't expect a big bbq banquet and they even had my favorite grilled pregnant fish. Some of the other wonderful dishes are horse sashimi (weird but surprisingly good) and grilled black beef. The creme brulee at the end was the best I have had.

After a very satisfying dinner. We couldn't wait to try their famous onsen. There are a few different onsens at this place but the best is so called "cave onsen". I can't believe they atually digged this cave. I was there for a little while with an old lady next to me. We even chatted a little bit. Kurokawa has a famous "onsen pass" which gives you 3 visits to any onsen in the town. we didnt' take advantage of that because we felt our ryokan already provided enough options.

It was bed time. As I was lying in the soft blanket on the tatami, I could hear the creek outside making this wonderful sound. I have come to Japan looking for my dream onsen experience and I think I have found it!

Next day we visited Mount Aso as the weather happened to be good and you don't get that every day. Mount Aso is an active volcano. It was great to see the lava in a real volcano.

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