BELATED SUMMER: HOUSHI ONSEN

BELATED SUMMER: HOUSHI ONSEN

Saturday, 7 October 2017

So, my last post was belated spring post and now it is time for belated summer. It's already October and is starting to feel so much more autumn.
This year we had a rather strange summer weather-wise, we had many really hot days but we also had many not-really-that-hot days and it was so much easier. (I mean when compared with previous years, summer had been insanely hot and intolerable.)

Anyway, this summer I had a mini brake and went on a little trip to this gorgeous onsen ryokan - hot spring inn. Our lovely friends from Melbourne Michelle and Steve were travelling around Gunma and R and I joined the two. I had been really looking forward to visiting this ryokan Choju-kan at Houshi Onsen and to see this beautiful architecture built in the Meiji period - 140 years ago.
This secret onsen is at the very end of the road so deep in the mountain in the Minakami area in Gunma prefecture. So quiet and peaceful surrounded by nature, it was just so incredible.




To tell you the truth, I had never really been a huge fan of onsen - hot spring - but obviously I had never experienced the really great one. There were not so many people when we went here, so I was lucky to have the whole bath to myself for half an hour each time I went in to all the different baths. Both Michelle and I were shy to go in at the same time, so we went in all at different timing.  I never feel so comfortable being in the Japanese bathhouse with other people although it is totally normal here. But when we met in the bath (it's quite a large bathroom where maybe 100 people can go in at once, and it's pretty dark you don't really see much you know) we shared a little moment together sitting in the huge wooden bath and even a cute little grasshopper (!) joined us it was really nice :)

I got up at 5:30 in the morning to enjoy one last bathing at this amazing onsen before breakfast, and again I had the entire room all to myself. Sooooo nice. Now I am dreaming of visiting another secret onsen.... There are so many places I have yet to know in my own country, I feel so lucky to have my dear friends M & S to tell us about all the things they discover in Japan that we had not known. Gosh they know so much about Japan!