Riverside Ryokan

This afternoon we left Tokyo on a bullet train heading south, and ended up in a tiny train station above a river gorge. We lumped down a steep forest path to the village of Tonosawa, just north of Hakone-Yumato, an area popular with tourists, local and otherwise, because it leads to vistas of Mount Fuji. But where we are staying is a few miles from there, and 100 years away from the other tourists.

The Fukuzimiro Ryokan is a 125 year old traditional inn with its own little onsen (hot spring). As we arrived our luggage was taken and wiped clean then carried to our room. We ourselves  took off our shoes and placed them on a shelf by the front door, marked and designated to our room, Sakura #3. Then we were welcomed formally, asked a few questions by the only one in the place who spoke some English, given a tour and directions for how to use the facilities, then led in a charming room of tatami mats and filled with the sound of water, as the river rushes past just below our window.

There is one room with an area to dress and prepare ourselves, and another room with a low table set in the middle, with cushions on two sides, and chair backs. This room also has a small sacred alcove (tokonoma), and an L shaped area with a table on which there was a carafe of ice water and two glasses. There was another small, narrow room off to the side, overlooking the river, with two western chairs made of rattan, and a small coffee table. This also had a small fridge, and a thermos of hot water next to 2 cannisters, one of Japanese green tea and one of black tea. The rooms are separated by paper-covered, wooden sliding doors, and there is a curtain around the long window.

As we sat at the little table in the main room to decide what drink we would order for our dinner (plum wine!), we were brought hot green tea and a little sweet wrapped in a leaf, that had no real flavour but was soft as a marshmallow. We changed into our yukata, a sort of cotton kimono with a loose belt (pink for me, blue for Martin) then went to the onsen. Typical of an inn of this kind, there are separate places for men and women, but there was also one private room. We eagerly chose this room to practise onsen etiquette.

First you strip down to nothing. Women's hair is to be pinned up. Clothing and slippers are placed in a wicker basket, so that all you take to the bathing area is a small towel. Stepping down into the stone-clad room, we saw two little plastic stools and two small wooden buckets. We first rinsed our respective stool, then poured water into our bucket and started to wash. There is soap, shampoo and conditioner provided. Once we were completely cleaned, we used a shower head to rinse off all vestiges of soap, making sure we stayed seated so the spray did not go everywhere. Then we Rinsed down our stool again, emptied our bucket and placed it upside down on the stool.

It is this point that one enters the onsen bath. This one was a deep stone bath below floor level, but some are tubs you have to climb to get into. The water is hot - not scalding, but very hot. The water was so clear that I wasn't sure there was any in the tub at all until I stepped in it - it is constantly being filled from below and flows over top, like an infinity pool.

After we were suitably warmed, we exited the tub, took the excess water off our bodies with our small cloth, and then went back into the changing area to dry off completely and change into our yukata, new socks provided to us, with a separate space for the big toe and our slippers. You would never put your old socks back on, as they are dirty and you are now clean.

It was hard to stay awake now that we were so clean and warm and relaxed, but we knew our multi-course kaiseki dinner would arrive in an hour or so, and we are so looking forward to that!