Stayed in this onsen hotel of more than 70 years in Hitoyoshi, with room overlooking the Hitoyoshi castle ruins and Kumagawa. Nice Kaiseki dinner was served.
Seiryu Sansuika Ayunosato
Category Archives: Onsen
Onsen stays
Shiroyama Hotel
Stayed in this 5-star onsen hotel on a hill overlooking Kagoshima city and Sakurajima before departure. Had a nice Kaiseki dinner serving top Kurobuta from Kagoshima 🙂
Kirishima Hotel
This onsen hotel has been established more than 100 years ago. It has four different onsen sources and a huge indoor onsen akin to a swimming pool, which dwarfs its rotenburo. This is the largest onsen that we have visited (except for the wild onsen in Kusatsu). In its gallery, Sakamoto Ryoma and his wife Ryo stayed there for honeymoon, which was a pretty new concept in Japan in that era.
On the hillside there is a huge forest planted with Sugi (Japanese pine) more than 100 years ago.
Miyajima Grand Hotel Arimoto
Stayed in this historical hotel for few centuries in Miyajima during koyo season.
The room was a modern Japanese style with 2 twin beds. It was a surprise that our room also opened up to a balcony with spacious sitting area outdoor but also a view of the Torii gate !
Dinner was sumptuous with Kawahagi as sashimi, oysters grilled and in steamed rice etc.
Location – it sit on hillside right behind the Itsukushima Shrine. Thus, it was pretty central for sightseeing.
Although public onsen bath is available with small rotenburo, on its Japanese website it states that artificial onsen is used.
Tenku no fune
Stayed in this luxurious onsen resort in Kami-Amakusa. Tenku-no-fune literally means boat floating in the sky. Indeed, the resort was on a small mount overlooking estuaries with the Shimabara Peninsula in the distance.
After checkin procedures, we were led to our junior suite by a golf cart. The suite itself was of 47 sqm with spacious twin beds, a living area, and a wooden terrace of 38 sqm facing the bay. The rotenburo in our room was slightly inside the terrace and covered. Thus, we could soak in it even if it had rained. There was not any public onsen unlike in most onsen hotels/resorts.
Both meals were in Italian, prepared from fresh seafood and vege, whereas beef was from Kumamoto/Aso. It was a nice finale to our last trip in Japan in 2017.
Sakan
Our second stay in this historical onsen ryokan of several centuries in Akiu onsen before leaving Japan.
It used to be visited by the famous Date Masamune (伊達政宗) – the Sendai Shogun more than 400 years ago, and subsequently his succeeding shoguns. Since the Edo-era, the Sato family has been appointed to administer the Akiu onsen.
It was the venue of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ meeting during the G7 summit in 2016.
Yoroduya
Stayed in this historical onsen ryokan (of more than 200 years old) in Yudanaka onsen for 2 nights. Its Momoyama rotenburo is registered as national tangible cultural asset (登録有形文化財).
Akakura Kanko Hotel
Though this onsen hotel has been around for several decades, its rooms and other facilities have been refurbished in western style.
As it’s at 1000m along the slope of Mt Myoko, sea of clouds can be seen in the morning on clear days from hotel rooms, decks and restaurants etc.
Apart from traditional Japanese courses, it has a French restaurant serving French dinner courses and western-style breakfast. We selected the latter and both meals were sumptuous and delicious.
Sea of clouds
Having been in continuous rainy days in this trip so far, we were lucky to have a sunny day and sea of clouds early in the morning, seen from room and public deck.
Kogure
Second stay in Ikaho onsen. Picked a modern room with twin beds and spacious living area with sofa. Sumptuous Kaiseki dinner. Rotenburo was huge.
JP emperors have stayed in this ryokan. The utensils and decorations used by them were displayed, including two sofas.
Kawakyu
Stayed in this luxurious onsen resort hotel while visiting Shirahama. Given all are suite rooms we picked a western-style suite in 90 sqm. Lavishly decorated, it has meticulous facilities, while meals were prepared from top food sources from Spain, Hokkaido and elsewhere in Japan.
