OK Where was I?

OK I have a huge back log of Japan experiences so I guess I'll continue where I left off. OK This is still Feb of 2011!

After my Last travel post We were in Shimane. I went to the Izumo Shrine. Izumo Taisha is known for En Musubi. This was probably Mom's subtle way of saying hurry up and start a family I guess. After Shimane, we headed toward Tokyo by traveling over the mountain range back to Okayama. From there we took the bullet train to Shizuoka to stay at a hotel right at the foothills of MT Fuji. unfortunately at that point the Weather did not cooperate at all and we had a layer of fog that hung over the area. The Ryokan it self was ok but it definetly felt a little like a business hotel. It was called Tokinosumika.. There was a little christmas light show display going on so I was able to get some cool pictures of that! So all was not lost.

The next day We headed to Izu Peninsula.Izu is known for its hot springs and per sq Km there are more Hostprings than any where in Japan I hear. We headed to Akazawa Onsen!  This destination was my pick and I heard from a friend that it was super nice. Boy was it ever! check out the Website for yourself! The Hotel is owned by the Cosmetics company DHC. The View from the hotspring was wide open view of the bay! Nice!

Below is a pic from the Hotel room but the View from the Hotspring was similar but higher. If you ever go here I would not limit yourself to the Bath's in the Ryokan. Definetly go next door to the Higaeri Hotspring. (Higaeri means go home by sundown. Its for just visiting the hotspring.) There is a secret passage between the two building so you can go over with out even getting cold! The dinner, breakfast, and the Tai style massage after a hot soak was excellent!


Next up! Kusatsu Onsen! So Next trip was up past Tokyo in to the mountains towards Nagano! Kusatsu Is known for the most amount of Hot spring water flowing out per minute. It is a huge amount! Something like 2K litters per minute. So much so that In the center of town in the freezing cold It feels a little warm with all the steam. You can put your hands in the water and it is very hot.

The Place definetly has a small town Onsen village feel to it and there are multaple mini hostprings there. So much so that some times I wasn't sure if it was a hotspring or a large public bathroom. See picture. Yes that is a hotspring. Its tiny! My apartment may be bigger than that! The town was very Cozy but there are a lot of tourists here. We stayed in a big hotel near by but if you really want to get the full flavor of Kusatsu I would pick the smaller Ryokan or minshuku near the center of town. Oh one last thing Taxi's are expensive up here in winter time. 2 mile trip was $20! I couldn't believe how quickly the meter was ticking! Well at night it was approaching 0 Deg C so it was money well spent but not cheap by no means!

Ok final leg we headed back to Tokyo and stayed the night in Yokohama before my flight back home the next day.  Unfortunately here too the weather did not play nice but it Oh well can't win them all! I did npot have any Chinese food but I did go to a nice Kaiseki dinner in the hotel. Pics of some of the dishes are below! that was good!

Overall I must say this was a very fun trip we covered a lot of ground thanks to the JR rail Pass! Just for comparison my parents did not use the JR rail pass but they did have a senor club discount (which is about 40% off regular price) And their total bill per person was 70,000 YEN. In comparison the amount  I paid for this rail pass was 36,800 Yen. Basically if you ride the Bullet train more than one round trip you already paid for it. So if your going to Japan I highly suggest you get it! It is THE BEST deal around! Also If you do get it you must get it before you go to JAPAN! you cannot buy it while you are there! 

Anyway That pretty much wraps up my trip from February 2011.

I have a few more trips that I made over there last year so stay tuned!