Day 10 In Japan : Time To Get Naked!

The highlight of staying in a Japanese Inn is of course for us to have a dip (or a dozen dips) in their onsen or hot spring. Unlike the onsens in Nyuto Onsenkyo which we visited last year, there is no mixed gender baths or private baths here in Uematsuya. Not that we minded, though.

It is said that Bessho onsen is called "Bijin no yu," or hot spring of beauty. It is very good for skin and makes it very smooth. It also heals cuts, abrasions, bruises and neuralgia. You can also drink onsen water, which is said to alleviate a sick feeling. There were scoops in this onsen and elsewhere outside, around Bessho Onsen for you to enjoy the water.

The entrance to the bath area at Uematsuya. We get to try both areas, as the baths will be rotated at 11.00pm daily. Don't confuse and enter the wrong bath!

Indoor bath at both area. Handrails are installed for ease of use for those not so mobile i.e. elderly guests. Before you enter the baths, remember to clean yourself first. Just sit at one of the stools and shower away. Ample toiletries for your use are available.

The open air onsens. It was nice to enjoy the the night view while having a soak. During daytime, you get a sweeping view of the area.

At one of the area, at the open-air bath, there is a tub bath (taru-buro) for guests' use too.

Fit for just one person, this type of bath is rare in Japan. Amongst all other baths at Uematsuya, this one is the least hot of the bunch. So, if you have the chance to visit, maybe try a dip in this bath first before trying a hotter one later.

When I got in this bath, it was drizzling outside so it was really nice to sit in the tub, with my chin propped by tub feeling the rain water dripping beside me. I can only imagine how nice it would be if I come to this are when there are snow around. Must've been quite magical.

There is one beauty of a gender segregated baths as opposed to mixed baths - I managed to have my "me" time without the chatter of my son. Love him I do, but sometimes it's nice to spend sometime alone.

We enjoyed our dips in the onsen so much that we woke up at 4.30am and head to the baths!

And oh! For those not familiar with the etiquette of entering an onsen - one of the requirement is that you have to be completely naked when entering the bath. The only thing you are allowed to bring together to the bath area is this small towel, which is used as a wash cloth. This small towel is not to be immersed or dipped in the onsen water and bathers usually place it by the side of the onsen or on top of their head when they enter the onsen. Coming out from the onsen, you use the towel to wipe yourself before going back in to the changing area where you can use the normal "big" towel.

Well, my explanation might not be all that correct, so for better insights on the intricacies of enjoying an onsen, google them up. I'm too lazy to put any link up. XD

p.s. When I was holding that small towel in the last photo, I had nothing on except the towel in my hand left hand and my camera in my right hand. *^-^*!

Day 10 In Japan : Around Bessho Onsen

What can one see when one is in Bessho Onsen, which is considered to be the onsen with the oldest history in Nagano? Plenty - that I can tell you.

A sneak peek of the places we visited, while walking around Bessho Onsen.

Entering Bessho Onsen

Plenty of hot spring, of course. You can drink the water, which is said to be good for the stomach and for beauty too.  The minerals in Bessho’s Onsen water leave your skin feeling soft, hence the nickname “Bijin” (beautiful lady) Water.

The taste? Taste like water used to boil eggs. The smell? Like rotten eggs!  The water here after all have sulfurous properties.

A watermill

Great view

A public bath. Cost 150yen per entry, if I'm not  mistaken.

And plenty of temples and important culural monuments to visit. Bessho Onsen is called the "Kamakura Of Shinshu" for nothing. Shinshu was the old name for Nagano, by the way.

More photos coming up! Do visit often. ;-)

Day 10 In Japan : Checking In At Uematsuya

Remember I mentioned in my earlier post about Day 10 being a day for relaxing?

We checked-in at Uematsuya for the night. Located in Bessho Onsen resort in Nagano Prefecture, Uematsuya is right in centre of the resort area so it is quite convenient to sightsee or visit other public baths surrounding the ryokan.

From Bessho Onsen station, we took a free shuttle ride to the ryokan and upon the arrival of the shuttle van, a staff was already waiting for guests' arrival. Pretty much the same scenario at other places too. Hotel/ryokan staff will be already standing outside when the shuttle van is due to arrive. Good service eh?

The hotel we spent our night in.

That's a persimmon tree outside the ryokan, but they were still unripe for us to even try to nick one! XD

After checking-in formalities done, we were ushered to a seat and served with hot towels (just two in the photo because Raimie had already took his);

along with frothy green tea for us and iced barley tea for Raimie and some sweets too. The green tea is traditionally prepared in single portions, whipped to a frothy green color with a bamboo whisk, by the way.

If you drink alcohol, they will also serve you with a local white and red wine too.

After being amply refreshed by the tea, we were shown to our room. It's really spacious, isn't it? We got a really big room, almost the size of a small apartment! I kid you not!

In the room, the staff explained to us about the ryokan facilities and also arranged for our preferred time for dinner that night and breakfast the next morning. We had our dinner later that night in the comfort of our room.

If you are worried about not understanding Japanese, worry no more. This ryokan provides printed explanations about the facilities and also about the area in English. There are also English speaking front office staff to assist you.

Some of the facilities here look old but they are all in good working condition. Upon seeing this telephone, Raimie asked me how to use it. My son has never seen or used this type of phone before! Actually, staying in this ryokan kinda made me feel like I was being transported back to Meiji era.

A guest book dating way back in the 1990s. There were a stack of guest books in our room and flicking through it, there were plenty of foreign guests writing, but all of them wrote in Japanese!

View from our room. It was nice to open the window and sit at the verandah, looking out and enjoying the scenery.

We didn't stay in our room for long. Next order of business was of course to enjoy a dip in their onsens. We did that and later in the evening, Zaini and I went out to sightsee. That - next. Stay tuned!

Day 10 In Japan : A Romantic Ride On The Bessho Line

Day 10 was a day for us to enjoy a relaxing day in a Japanese Inn and soak in onsens! Lovely.

Due to last minute traveling date change, we were unable to reserve the room we wanted at Tsurunoyu Onsen in Nyuto Onsenkyo so we decided to try and make a trip to Bessho Onsen instead.

Bessho Onsen is located in the east region of Nagano prefecture, almost in the centre of Japan. It is considered to be the onsen with the oldest history in Nagano with several important cultural monuments in the area. More info about the area in my later post. Wait for it!

Taking the Nagano shinkansen, we made a stop at Ueda station. Ueda is the home of the Sanada Clan, a powerful warrior family of feudal Japan. If you like samurais, you can even see several samurai armours at the Ueda station!

Ueda is also the location where a mang a series and also an a nime titled Summer Wars was based on. If you like to know more about the movie (and of Ueda's history), visit Ueda Convention Bureau site.

After a couple of hours walking around the Ueda Station and me doing some shopping at  a nearby Ito Yokado, we took the electric train on the Bessho line to Bessho Onsen.

Such cute motifs for the Ueda Electric Railway Bessho Line, don't you agree?

Raimie inside the train. The train moves at a leisurely pace so it was rather nice to look out and enjoy the view of the countryside. This line goes through residential areas and we passed houses that literally inches away from the railway track and train!

Me and Raimie with the stationmaster of Bessho Onsen. She had such a nice uniform, I couldn't resist complimenting her and asked her to pose for a photo with us.

Going to Bessho Onsen, we got on the train with lovely and colourful motifs. The train for our return journey was similarly visually pleasing but this time, the train has a retro vibe to it. Love the artwork on the train's ceiling depicting each of the stations from Ueda Station all the way to Bessho Onsen. See that old looking fan on the train's ceiling? It is fully functioning and not a speck of dust on it too!

Day 9 In Japan : Around Sendai Station

We didn't spend much time in Sendai and our stop for the night here was as a base for our trip to Matsushima Bay earlier in the day. We did however had fun sampling fishcakes at the food area in the station. You can get full just by sampling free food there! 

Of course, if you come to this area and you don' t have any food restrictions like us, you should sample their gyutan - that's grilled cow's tongue. It's the region specialty so if you can, don't miss the opportunity to try it.

We only had a few hours sightseeing in the evening  so we didn't venture far from Sendai Station. Our hotel for the night was located just a few minutes away from the station too, thus the reason of not needing to stray too far.

Sendai Station at 6.25pm.

Scores of taxis waiting for passengers at the station. It's interesting for me to note that after I took this photo, and googling about more info of Sendai, I found photos of this same spot for photos mentioning Sendai.

The city at night. We went to the downtown area but by 9.00pm, the area's shops are closing/closed, and only watering holes and restaurants were open.

I sure look forward to another visit to Sendai in the future because our short visit there was simply not enough!

Day 9 In Japan : Matsushima Bay

On Day 9 of our trip, we got on a shinkansen again, this time heading to Sendai, an hour and 40 minutes ride from Tokyo.

We checked-in at JAL City Hotel there and immediately head off to Matsushima; about half an hour's train trip from Sendai Station.

Setting off to Matsushima Bay, we got on a local train to Matsushima Station (that's the photo of Zaini at the station). This station is not the nearest station to the islands and we actually walked a couple of kilometers to get to the bay area but as always, we like to do things the hard way. Walking from Matsushima Station, we passed by the Belgium Orgel Museum but didn't stop there. If you are interested, there are 134 orgels (music boxes) acquired directly from the National Museum of Belgium exhibited at this gallery.

Returning afterwards after hours of sightseeing, we took the train on JR Senseki line at Matsushima-Kaigan Station (and me in the photo in front of the said station) which is nearer to the pier where sightseeing boats that cruises around the islets are docked.

We had fun walking around the bigger island (Oshima Island, if I'm not mistaken), which we got to by walking on the 250m vermillion-lacquered bridge. 

The view is indeed lovely, befitting its status as one of three Japan's scenic view. The other two are Miyajima; which we visited in 2008 and Amanohashidate. Just like Miyajima, you can find plenty of foreign tourists (and loud ones too!) here.

You can hike up into the wooded area, play at the beach (water wasn't exactly pristine clean, though) or explore the caves on this island so even though the island is small, we spent a few hours exploring there and meeting lots of fellow tourists.

Day 8 : Hanayashiki Amusement Park

On Day 8 of our vacation,we decided to make a visit to Hanayashiki Amusement Park in Asakusa. The park is just a few hundred metres away from our hotel that we always stay in whenever we are in Tokyo but prior to this visit, we only passed by the amusement park.

Hanayashiki is the oldest amusement park in Japan, having been in operation since 1853!

Admission to the park is not exactly cheap, if you plan to spend the day trying out all the rides there. Admission for adult is 900yen (400yen for children) and going on the rides you can either choose to buy the free pass (2,200yen adult & 1,900yen child) or buy coupon tickets (11 coupons for 1,000yen or 1 coupon for 100yen). We got ourselves free passes because we intend to get on as many rides as possible.

A rickety roller coaster. It might not be all that fast or do any 360 degrees loop but the thrill was still there. I think the thrill comes from the fear of  bumping into somehing or whether the roller coaster would fall off at any point than anything else. LOL

Yeay! We sure had fun there.

More photos of the park later. Stay tuned if you are interested. :D