Visits to remote Japanese ryokans (旅館), or traditional Japanese inns, become windows from which you can observe Japanese culture. A visit to a ryokan in Oguni, Yamagata, named Miyoshisou will introduce you to the culture of Japanese mountain communities. The ryokan feels like a natural history museum. Miyoshisou has a unique bath, called Awanoyu, which Japanese onsen connoisseurs love for its rusty-iron-colored thermal water. The slightly carbonated water is thick with mineral deposits, yunohana (湯の花), which are visibly floating in the bathwater shown in the picture on the left.
Many novices to hot-spring bathing may feel uncomfortable submerging in what appears to be dirty water, but the water naturally flows from the earth in that condition. It is unfiltered, so it is rich in minerals and good for your skin. Mineral content affects the turbidity. Some hotels filter their hot spring water. Another unique aspect of this bath is that the temperature is around 38 degrees Celsius. Most range in temperature between 40 to 42 degrees Celsius. Many Japanese hotels heat the water entering their baths. One of my fellow bathers visits Miyoshisou several times a year. He believes that lower water temperature takes longer to warm his body, but he feels that he stays warmer afterward. On the contrary, another bather expressed disappointment because he was expecting a hotter bath. Luckily for him, Ryokan Miyoshisou has another bath that is filled with spring water that the hotel has heated and filtered. Both bathing areas have glass windows facing a river, hills, trees, and fields.
Visitors should savor the local, seasonal specialties in the tiny restaurant on the premises. Freshly gathered mushrooms and other "wild" vegetables, along with river fish, are included in tempera, noodle, and rice dishes. The restaurant, like the hallways and almost all of the walls of the building, are "decorated" with an eclectic collection of knickknacks, furs, and photographs that can teach you about both the lifestyles of people in the region and the quirky tastes of the hotel owner. 
Looks like you know how to keep warm!!
ReplyDeleteI just linked to your blog in the small print in my this weeks post theme was serendipity!
Happy hot springs days,
Joanne
Howdy Joanne,
DeleteLast weekend we went to several new hot springs in an area with about one meter of snow. I will write more later. Stay warm yourself and thanks for the link.
The Japanese hot spring has about ten kinds of mineral quality.
ReplyDeleteTo enjoy the iron quality, it's nice to go to "Furou-Fusshi Onsen" or "Arima Onsen". Then, the spa water you will see there is "Chai" colour. But due to the strong iron quality, if you cannot go along with it, your skin will turn to show spotted reds after the bathing. This is a matching matter with minerals.
If you want to experience all kinds of quality at one place, go to "Beppu Onsen".
I hope you enjoy this comment.
I deeply appreciate your input. It has been many years since I bathed in Arima Onsen. Unfortunately that was before I started writing or even thinking much about hot springs, so I do not have photographs. Returning there and sampling some of their baths again is a goal. I used to live near Beppu, so I have been to over one hundred baths in Beppu. I will write more about Beppu in the future. Please comment more often. Happy New Year!
ReplyDeleteHi Greg,
DeleteI'm Taro, not good at IT skill that's why I posted a comment as Anonymous, excuse my new year's greeting because I'm in mourning.
Arima Onsen is famous for the iron quality spa, but due to the excessive hot spring developments, most of the bath in town is using the circulation of the natural mineral water, and what connoisseur's favor "Gensen-KakeNagashi" spa is few. If you want to soak the fresh water, do ask it at the public tourist office, then they will tell you about unwritten informations according to your inquiry.
The other same quality spa I introduced ahead was "Furou-Fushi Onsen". Literally it means the hot spring for ageless-everlasting. Its location is wonderful. Almost close to the seashore the outdoor bath of Furou-Fushi Onsen sites. Since the spa face to the Sea of Japan, if you soak it at the evening glow, you will view the extraordinary sunset over the horizon as long as weather smiles to you. Probably the paradise is in the warm season but not in the winter !
Beppu Onsen is one of the magnet as the exotic tourist resort for Chinese and Korean. But recent territorial discords - against the regional closeness - great numbers of people from the continent has been changing their destination to the other nation. As a result, you can enjoy the major sight-seeing places or resorts in this country less congestion. And Buppu Onsen is no exception.
Indigenous dishes in Beppu Onsen are cooked by the hot spring "steam" utilized by abundant natural powers peculiar to Beppu Onsen. Try this ultimate eco cooking as a topic of your blog in the next visit.
Many accidents take place at the winter. The gap of temperature between your body, air and hot spring is one of the key reason. Keep safe and enjoy bathing.
Taro
Hello Taro, Thank you again for your comments. I lived in Oita-shi for approximately five years, and I often visited the springs in Beppu. In fact, I twice qualified to become an Onsen Meijin, a process that I will write about in the future. Regarding cooking with steam in Beppu, I have already written about it in a post that is titled Cooking With The Steam From Hell. If I have a chance to visit Arima again, I will visit the one you recommended. During this winter break, I went to twelve different baths. I am sorry for your personal loss.
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