We booked one night at Korakukan, the large, sprawling ryokan (traditional Japanese hotel) that sits just outside the official park boundaries. We stayed here once several years ago and loved it, so made that our home base for the first night. It's not in the centre of town, nor is it even near much of anything - to get to the ryokan (and the park), you have to park at Kambayashi Onsen and take a pleasant two km walk along a wooded path. But of course, this merely adds to the atmosphere, as do the monkeys that frequently 'hang out' here. Korakukan has out-door onsens (which are for people), but both of which are also enjoyed by the monkeys. One of the outdoor baths is women only, and the other is mixed men and women; I usually went into the mixed bath, so Brian and I got to enjoy some mixed baths with the monkeys, together, too!
This set of buildings is Korakukan, as seen from the Monkey Park:
Dinner at Korakukan is also quite an extravagant, traditional feast which not only includes the usual fish and rice, but also a nabe (soup), some chicken, and, most uncommon, fried crickets (inago).
Crickets with dinner:
At Korakukan, where monkeys joined us in our bath:
After a relaxing night at Korakukan and several hot, steaming baths with the monkeys, we spent the next morning taking pictures at the park. The park was rather over-populated with other tourists and photographers, but we still enjoyed watching the monkeys get up to some antics.
We got tons of monkey pics; these are Brian's with the D40x.
After the park, we checked out of Korakukan, hiked back to our car, then drove the very short drive to Shibu Onsen, which, as the name may suggest, is an onsen town.
Onsen towns are awesome - usually they are small, old towns that have a lot of natural hot springs. In Shibu Onsen, we stayed at the Youdaya (Yodaya) ryokan, a very simple, but lovely, family-run little ryokan. It is in an excellent location right in the centre of the 'town'. Our room was very nice, the natural onsen rotenburo on the roof was superb, the food simply gorgeous and delicious.
Me at breakfast at Yodaya:
One of the things I like about onsen towns is that you can walk around the town wearing your yukata, no need to get all dressed up. Also, this town has nine little public hot springs scattered along the streets (all two streets!); local ryokans have a key (one size fits all) to lend to guests, and entry into any of the nine little baths is free. So, of course, we spent our Friday afternoon and Saturday morning roaming the town of Shibu Onsen, taking pictures and baths and simply enjoying the quaint (and extremely quiet) atmosphere.
We stopped for lunch at a local restaurant specializing in Chinese fare:
Brian outside bath number seven in Shibu Onsen, wearing his Yukata:
I think Shibu Onsen is suffering a bit of a recession itself, as the town was extremely quiet. I'm sure that we were the only guests at our place, and the family just couldn't give us enough service. They phoned the day before our arrival to confirm our reservations, and were very welcoming when we arrived. Our room was on the third (top) floor, and dinner and breakfast were served in an empty room just next door. The woman running the place made sure we had everything we needed and even found some extra-large yukata for Brian! She then set out some geta (shoes) and gave us the key for all the local public baths. I also think that the owners went out of their way to give us a superlatively exquisite dinner.
Upon checkout, the man of the ryokan wanted to give us a little parting gift, and, seeing as how we don't smoke, he gave us three large apples in lieu of a pack of cigarettes.
The drive back home was uneventful and pleasant, and we made good time covering the three hundred kilometres back to Susono.
Accommodation:
Kourakukan (Korakukan) (後楽館）
Highly recommended - even if only for one night, just because the atmosphere and the thrill of the monkeys makes it worth it.
- The phone number is: 0269-33-4376
- Their home page is here (Japanese only) : http://www.mountaintrad.co.jp/nagano/jgk/korakukan/data.html
- Find out more in English here: http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/db/nagano/korakukan.htm
Youdaya (Yodaya) Ryokan (養田屋 旅館）
- The phone number is: 0269－33－2236
- Their home page is here (Japanese only): http://youdaya.com/index.html
1 comment:
Sounds like a really nice way to spend a few days - colour me green. Some nice pics too.
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