Advertisement
Published: September 25th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Ryokan
Our room with a view I spent my final weekend in Japan relaxing in style at a local onsen or hot spring resort.
Eve and I booked a night at the Yoshikawaya ryokan in Iizaka, a 15 minute drive from Fukushima. Although it’s a relatively close location, it felt like it was a world away. When we arrived at the train station, the ryokan’s car and driver met us to take us to the resort. The car pulled up to the entrance and there were no less than 10 staff members waiting for us- men in suits, women in suits, and women in kimono. They rushed to open our car doors and began welcoming us and bowing. It felt like we were the royal guests or something.
One of the young staff members dressed in a kimono introduced herself and guided us through check-in and up to our room. My name was on a sign out form of the room- the only western name amid the rooms with Japanese characters spelling out the guests’ names. Our room was a large, traditional, tatami-matted room complete with sliding screen doors and windows.
We had a gorgeous view of the valley and mountain leading down to
Eve
Eve in her yukata in our ryokan room the river at the bottom on the gorge. Our kimono girl- Kaori- served us green tea and Japanese snacks while explaining about the yukata (cotton robes) for us to wear and where we could find the baths. She would also be serving us our dinner in the restaurant that night. Each room and guests are assigned to a different staff member who escort them and guide them through their check-in and dinner.
We changed into our yukata and peeked out into the hall. We weren’t sure if it was customary to wear a yukata around all day or not. We stuck our heads out and looked into the hallway, finally catching a glimpse of a woman in a yukata. We were safe to wear our yukata to the first floor baths.
No bathing suits are allowed in onsens which are separate for men and women, and we had been advised that even the towels are small, facecloth sized towels. The normal procedure for visiting an onsen is to change out of your yukata in the change rooms, which are filled with different spa and hair products and treatments, hairdryers, and massage tables. Once changed, you proceed to the
Bedding
The bedding is stored in a closet. At night, the table and cushions are moved and the futons are placed on the floor. bath area which is lined with shower stations and more bath products where you fist wash yourself before proceeding to the hot springs.
This ryokan we were at had both an indoor and outdoor bath. The outdoor bath is fed straight from a small, waterfall hot spring. The bath itself is made to look like a natural setting in a rock pool with a wooden roof on the slope of the mountain. We had gorgeous views of the river and the mountain. The weather was prefect and sunny, just a little cool which made the water all the more refreshing. The water was so hot, that we weren’t able to stay in for long periods of time. The indoor baths were just as hot, and were surrounded by glass walls so we were still able to have the great views of the surrounding area.
Our dinner turned out to be a traditional Japanese feast, with at least 9 different plates of food, from sushi, sashimi, rice, and sukiyaki (a hot pot where you cook udon noodles, vegetables, and beef in a broth) and delicious desserts. The food was fantastic and more than we had anticipated. Before dinner we
had made friends with the bartender (which is pretty easy considering as 2 young foreigners, we are quite an attraction) as we had a drink in the lounge. She came over to our dinner table and asked if we would like to see a magic show. A magician came to our table and performed some tricks for us, which was fun.
After dinner, we headed back to the baths for an evening soak. The onsen is different at night- steam rises and lights are on the pools as well as on the side of the mountain. We had the entire place to ourselves for almost an hour, so I was able to bring my camera and take a few quick pictures before any other women came out.
We decided to visit the karaoke bar to have a drink. There was one other table of people who were taking turns singing songs. Eve and I got up to sing one of our favourite songs to much applause from the other table and the staff. One man from the table came over after performing a Celine Dion song and introduced himself as the manager of the ryokan. Eve got up
to sing a U2 song as a goodbye performance for me. Halfway through her song, more staff had entered the bar and began clapping along. After her song, 3 of the young staff members came over to sit with us, including Kaori, our staff girl. We were al the same age so they wanted to talk to us and practice their English. We were told that not many foreigners come to the onsen, and especially not 2 young women like ourselves, as most of the clientele is either older people or families. They asked us to pose for pictures with them and bid us goodnight after about 45 minutes.
The next morning after breakfast, we visited the baths again, this time the men’s and women’s baths were reversed, so we had new baths and new views. One of Eve’s French students, Yasuko, had made all of the bookings for us since she lives in Iizaka. We met her after our check-out and her mom drive us around Iizaka to a beautiful Japanese garden. We walked around the garden, fed the carp in the pond, and were treated to macha or powdered green tea and Japanese sweets before we were
dropped off at the Fukushima train station.
We said goodbye to Yasuko’s mom and went out for lunch, followed by my last visit to our favourite karaoke place. My suitcases are packed and have been picked up by the luggage delivery service, one of the best and most efficient aspects of Japan. I don’t need to drag 3 heavy suitcases around with me to the airport, and instead, just have to pick them up at the airport before boarding my flight. Hopefully, they’ll let me on the plane with my overweight suitcases, or there will be a lot of scrambling and repacking at the airport as I try to layer even more clothing on.
So that’s it for my last posting from Japan. It’s been a great experience and I’ve had lots of fun. I have another 2 nights in Tokyo before leaving on Wednesday, so I will post some more pictures from my final days in Japan once I’m back on Canadian soil!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 57; dbt: 0.071s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
WcherryBarbie
non-member comment
OH my GOSH!
Hello! This site just poped up when i was searching Iizaka town, fukushima! . Im from IIzaka-town!!!! Oh my gosh..its really awsome to see somebody visited my town! Its really a small town you know? My house is pretty close where you visited. that brige..i painted from other side when i was elementary school!! I wanna talk so many thing..but stopp right here lol Thank you for coming to my town! How did you know here by the way?