Aoni Onsen

This weekend Chris and I took advantage of a few extra days off and went to Aoni Onsen. Brief explanation of onsens in Japan - Japan sits on a fault line so there are thousands of natural hot springs across the country. For hundreds of years the Japanese people have used these hot springs for bathing, relaxation, and to cure various ailments. 

Aoni Onsen is located in the mountains a couple of hours from our house. It is famous for being lit solely by oil lamps. Many onsens used to be lit by oil lamps before electricity was carried out to the more remote areas but Aoni onsen is one of the few (if only) that continues to be lamp lit and virtually electricity-free.

It's definitely off the beaten path... after about an hour of winding through the mountains on a narrow two-lane road, you turn off the two-lane road to an even narrower, one-and-a-half-lane road (you can hardly call it a two-lane road) and wind slowly deeper in to the mountains for about twenty minutes. The onsen and ryokan (traditional Japanese style inn) are nestled up against a mountain stream and perched over several natural hot springs.

This was the main entrance to the main building.

We stayed in room 205. Inside the entryway there was a simple, square room with tatami mats on the floor and a low table in the middle. The room had one oil lamp at the center, a flashlight and some tea on the table, and some futon cushions in the closet to pull out at night.

The room also had a yukata for each of us to wear around the hotel and back and forth between the baths and a set of onsen towels for each of us. Our room was just a few feet from the mountain stream.

Inside this building was my favorite of the four baths. Outside, where the woman is sitting, was a foot onsen.  The woman, I found out later, has a daughter who lives in Wisconsin. Weird.

I think this bridge may be solely maintained by beavers. In spite of the robust support in the middle, the bridge still sagged and swayed quite a bit when I ventured out on it.

Standing on the bridge, this was the view of the main building where we slept.

Dinner and breakfast were included in our stay. Dinner was awesome. It was all laid out for us when we arrived and there were at least 13 separate dishes per person including all you could eat rice and miso soup. It was all locally grown or locally caught food and, even though we couldn't identify any of the vegetables except a single carrot and some celery, it was pretty tasty.

The rest of the dining hall with guests.

This entire fish was edible according to our fellow Japanese diners, but fish heads and tails have never really appealed to me. I think I did pretty good.

The following morning when we woke up to take our first bath, the onsen was completely empty so I snapped a few pictures. This was the undressing/dressing area before you reached the bath.

Inside the bath, there was a small washing station. It's very important to clean thoroughly outside of the bath before entering the main, shared bath. The buckets were used to dip and pour water.

After cleaning you proceed to the hot baths to soak, relax, and enjoy the view.

To the side of the main bath was this outdoor bath with slightly cooler water (a welcome break from the super hot main bath). You could bathe in the large barrel, or in the lower rock lined pool. Each offered great views of the stream and surrounding vegetation.

Clean, refreshed, and ready for breakfast.  All weekend it felt like were were just lounging in our pjs. They even provided slippers to slip on so you didn't have to worry about your shoes.

To be honest, breakfast was a little difficult. You'll notice it looked a lot like dinner. Fish, rice, and miso soup. The biggest difference was that the breakfast foods were even more unidentifiable. 

We powered through it though. Here I am, cooking my egg in a sort of vegetable/scallop/soup/scramble.  It was alright except it had a pretty soupy texture. There were definitely some granola bars in the room that we chowed down on later.

Tanbo Rice Art

Last weekend we visited the Tanbo Rice Fields. The wikipedia link says it all much better than I could. All I'll say was that they were amazing. 

There kind of out in the middle of nowhere but they've become a huge tourist attraction.  I think they might have built this tower specifically to view the Rice Art. I'm sure it was all explained in my Japanese travel brochure I picked up.

Every year, the farmers plant a different mural. I can guess about this one based on rumors I've heard. I believe these women riding the waves represent the tsunami (again, this is a guess). 

I'm told the writing says "Don't Give Up Japan!!" The people on the right seem to represent the Japanese people affected by the March 11 earthquake/tsunami. 

Sometimes the fields are called the "painted rice fields". This is misleading because there was obviously lots of work going into planting the different varieties of rice to make the mural.

I had no idea there were so many varieties and colors of rice. I think I counted at least 7 different colors.