Yamada Onsen

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2nd visit : 19-20 February 2005

Back in Yamada Onsen! With Nakako and Cedric.
Unfortunately, this time, the weather was not that nice, and it was even so windy that the ski fields were closed for a long time. We finally gave up the ski, and focused on the onsen - in an region famous for its baths, it wasn't such a sacrifice anyway.

We first visited the Redwood Inn, a small inn located directly on the ski field, which has a nice restaurant (with home made sausages) and a very interesting outdoor bath, from which the ski field can be seen!

The baths themselves (one for men, one for women) are carved from a giant redwood from California's Sequoia National Park!

There are also separated small, indoor baths, but of course they are less interesting.

 

Another onsen, Goshikinoyu, whose name come from the unusual fact that the color of the water can change - that day, the water was grey with a black suspension.

There was really a lot of snow around...

 

We stayed - again - at the Takinoyu ryokan, which has a beautiful outdoor mixed bath... and a large inside one, too.

And a picture taken during the dinner. The owner of the ryokan is a very nice lady, who always comes to talk a little with the customers.

 

The following day, we went to Jigukodani onsen.

While coming back to Tokyo, we stoped in a small onsen close to the city of Nagano. The water was really special, with a huge amount of salt dissolved in it, and containing a lot of iron - giving a typical color to the water.

So much salt is present that the pipes get stucked very quickly... Here is a picture of a pipe: after just 6 months of usage, it has to be changed.

The spring:

 

 

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1st visit : March 2004

Many ski resorts can be found in the mountains between the city of Nagano and the next prefecture, Gunma-ken. This area, called Yamanouchi (home of the mountains), is also famous for its onsen.

Yamada Onsen is probably much less famous than the area around Shiga-kogen, which hosted some olympic competitions. It is also much quiter, with absolutely fabulous onsen and resonnable ski possibilities. OK, some of the lifts look a little bit old-fashioned... but there was absolutely nobody on the field. The slopes run between 1900 and 1500 meters, and nice ski can be done in the wood.

 

Easy to feel at home?

 

 

We stayed in a small, old ryokan called Takinoyu. Very cheap place, but with a extremely friendly staff, and an incredible outside mixed bath... Look at those pictures taken just after the breakfast (we of course soak in the same bath at night, too):

 

And we were the only two in the bath!

  

 

 

We decided to enjoy as many konyoku as possible! So we also visited this one, Goshikinoyu, located between the ski resort and our ryokan. The outside bath, close to the river, was surrounded by snow - it even was snowing for a while!

But water is really too hot for me, sometimes...

There is no real interest to spend time in the inside baths when it is so gorgeous outside - especially when the inside ones are segregated - but the material used to build the inside o-furo was really nice (only natural wood).

 

 

And a third, mixed rotemburo: Fukeikan. Located inside the town of Yamada Onsen, the bath is accessed by going down inside a canyon. Just overlooking a mountain river, an iced waterfall can be seen from the bath. 

Again, the inside bath was also really nice... but not mixed!