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Published: December 9th 2019
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The locals thought we were absolutely mad! It was the wrong season!!!!!!
We had tried to go on this excursion in the winter time but alas, it is such an enjoyable local activity that no accommodation was available.
What is it? Well its going to an onsen town (some would say the best in Japan) and staying overnight so that you can wander from onsen - hot water bath either inside or outside which are sex segregated and where you soak naked for as long as you like - to onsen between 7am and 11pm. Its a thoroughly relaxing and somewhat hedonistic activity.
I have to say that it far more enjoyable when it is cold and even snowing - but we had time at the end of summer school holidays and despite the temperatures being 33 degrees and 99% humidity we went - so we could have this once every now and then pampering treat that most Japanese enjoy.
Kinosaki is a very tiny town wedged between mountains along a river that feeds into a larger river that flows to the sea about 8kms further away. It has spent its life being an onsen town. So
it is set up for people to come for a day or two, eat wonderful seafood, relax, bathe have massages and generally pamper themselves and their families. There is a foot bath and an onsen right outside the train station. The town has preserved its dark wooden 2 storey houses so that it holds historical authenticity and is small enough that you can walk from bathhouse to bathhouse easily. It has a cable car- here called a ropeway - above its water source (of volcanic nature) where the view is along the rivers out to sea.
In particular in Kinosaki, every type of accommodation has its own patterned yukata - cotton dressing gown (there are heavier weight ones and little coats that go over them in the winter), carryall for your phone, bath entry token and towels, and ghetta or wooden shoes that look like thongs that have thicker wooden soles and two pieces of wood under the sole at 90 degree angles to your foot's direction, to make sure if you walk in rain or snow, your feet don't get wet. We refrained from ghetta but did indulge in wandering around the town in underwear and a cotton
dressing gown with out patterned carryall! So it was great fun to hear the clackety clack that ghetta made on the cobbled streets and see many many people in bright patterned yukata wandering the streets in the late afternoon and evenings. Our local friends' seasonal views were not born out by an evening full of yukata wearers strolling and bathing.
Being adventurers we did the pamper bit - but during the day when locals sensibly stayed inside because of the heat, we were innured to it, carried lots of water, sunscreen and hats and rode to see firstly a stork sanctuary then to a geological park.
Yes there are Asian and European storks. A very passionate researcher whos spoke excellent English explained to us how his organisation with the help of local schools and NGOs were creating safe nesting poles for storks so that the local population could increase and flourish. We were shown an empty nest in the sanctuary and saw then rode right under the female stork who was sitting on a light pole above a field of rice that was just being harvested. Apparently there was good eating when the harvester got out of the
way. At the time we could see the difference between the storks we had seen nesting in an Austrian town called Russt and the one on the lamppost captured in the sanctuaries camera. I hope that the researchers continue to grow the glorious bird numbers. Those of you who are Australian may not think of it, but Kinosaki is blanketed in snow for 3 months in winter and the storks sit on their perches and go about their business snow or not.
We rode a further 15 minutes along the river inland and found a 'geopark' full of delightful cubed and hexagonal 'beads' of rocks - some like we'd seen by a black sand beach in Iceland. They looked ancient, mighty but a little forlorn because they had been exposed by mining before the locals saw the sense in preservation and created the park. I was delighted because not only were there geological explanations for the rock formation in English but with diagrams I could understand that were also labelled bilingually. I won't bore you with the explanation. However I did enjoy sunshine, shade. birdsong and rock sculptured by mining in the park after dynamic volcanic activity many eons
ago.
Fortunately for us, the local council had created a museum about the geology and placed above it a gorgeous cafeteria and souvenir shop whose windows fronted the river. We refuelled and headed back to pampering.
Our second day on bikes we went seaward and found a fantastic bike path with its own bridge to get us to the seashore. It was the first time I had seen a slightly familar scene of kids and families having holidays in tents on grassed areas by a light brown sandy beach that had wavlets in Japan. Even the kid noises in the water and on the beach were familiar, if not somewhat muted.
One minor envy I had of our fellow yukata wearers was that we had to fossick in the 24 hour convenience stores for egg sandwiches, rice balls fruit and yoghurt while the others repaired to their accommodation to be provided with sumptious meals. Alas it is difficult to be vegetarian in ryokan or Japanese hotels in 2019 where vegetarian cooking is too difficult. However, our great friend Yuko found us a wonderful cafe that supplied excellent vegetarian lunches. Ah such envy is really just a first
world issue. We are able to travel, eat well and adventure when many others don't have the energy even to dream of adventures.
There are seven public bathhouses in Kinosaki. Some of them are depicted in the stained glass lantern covers in photos at the bottom of the blog. We were there for 48 hours. We tried 5 bathhouses. Each one was different. Some tiny, some with outside baths and some with a number of pools/baths. Our experience was that each time we entered the hot/warm volcanic water we could stay in it for less time than previously. So there was no way we could economise on the day ticket and visit all 7 onsen in one day! My peronsal preference is for the outside ones, despite the wish of a few mosquitos to join me. We were totally relaxed and happy vegemites when we hopped on the train home.
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