Kinosaki Onsen is a small town located in the northern region of the Hyogo prefecture on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The town is famous for it's Onsen and crab in winter. There is a river canal that is lined with willows and cherry blossom trees.
Started the morning with a nice relaxing and warming bath at the ryokan's onsen to start the day. The ryokan had four bath areas. Two in the main foyer and towards the back of the ryokan. The two in the main foyer had an indoor and outdoor area, whereas the ones at the back were indoor only, but you could see out into a garden. The baths would be either male or female and would be switched over half way during the day. Really enjoyed the outdoor ones as the air would be nice and cool whilst you were in the hot water. After returning to the room we had our futons all packed away and our breakfast ready. =D You could choose what time you wanted to have your breakfast and whether you wanted Japanese or Western style breakfast. We all opted for the Japanese breakfast for the first morning. This is a pic of most of the breakfast we got. We got pickles, rice porridge, a seaweed salad, a tofu pot, fish (which you get place on a charcoal grill to warm up), milk or juice, rice, some baby squid, fruit and some tea. I'm sure I forgot something but it was a lot but soo good.
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| Hot pot of tofu |
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| Warming up our fish |
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| I liked this piece of tableware. You could dismantle it. |
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| Dismantled. Top part had sauce, middle part some ginger and chopped green onions, bottom squid. |
After breakfast we walked to the Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway and took the ropeway to the top, where there is an observation area, a playground, cafe/shop and a walking track.
There was some special tree (can't remember what was special about it except that it was old) which we followed a track to.
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| Some special old tree.. Haha.. |
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| People grilling their mochi and dango over charcoals. |
We started our walk down the mountain through a very rugged track to the midpoint area where there was a temple and an 'art museum'. The keeper who looked after the temple gave us a tour of the temple (none of which we could understand though). We headed to the art museum next which was very small and basically just consisted of artifacts and old temple statues.
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| Finally reached the bottom. |
We grabbed a snack of icecreams and Tajima beef nikuman (meat bun) at a nearby cafe. You could buy eggs at that cafe where you could cook in some onsen water next to the shop. There was a foot onsen a couple of meters from the cafe where you could soak your feet whilst eating. The rest of the day we spent relaxing at the ryokan and visiting some nearby bath houses. There are seven main bath houses in the town. When you stay at the ryokan you get a pass which allows you to visit any of the bath houses in the area. During the time we spent there I visited 3 bath houses which all have an indoor and outdoor section. I liked number 1 and 5 the most. Number 1's outdoor bath was in like a little cave, and number 5 had a beautiful garden with a little waterfall. Being an onsen town there are many people walking around in yukatas and geta (wooden clogs). The ryokan has towels, yukata and geta you can borrow to visit the bath houses.
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| Tasty soup with fish |
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| Sam's sushi including sea urchin, crab and pufferfish |
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| Tajima beef and vegetables. |
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| Cooking the beef |
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| Can't remember this one that much but the upper left is fish. |
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| Shabu-shabu of veggies and baby squid. |
The seaweed you got for the shabu-shabu was wakame and is that brownish colour seen on the upper half. When it goes into the hot liquid it turns bright green.
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| Local soba. This was sooo good!! |
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| Watermelon, grapes and strawberry jelly with a green tea-red bean mochi with kinako. |
Had to finish the day with a bath or two. =P
