Traditional Japanese Ryokans and Onsens (Natural Hot Springs)
The Matsuzakay Honten - recreating traditional Japanese housing from 700 A.D.
Natural Hot Springs - smell of Sulfur was strong and hot water always running
It was a premium to pay for simplicity in nature, contrast to the 5 star amenities of exuberant hotels (which I love) in the states. There’s a beauty in peace, quiet wood boards, in tradition robes and showering only in hot springs with natural minerals. It was a peace only offered by hours of travel by bullet train and bus.
Hakone Shrine
A quick bus ride to the Hakone Shrines in the mountains - this Tori sits out by the lake, pathway leading straight into the water.
A quaint storefront in the mountains of Hakone
A neighborhood overlooking the water, with accompanying Tori
Rural Japan - Hakone Ashinoyu Area
Still... unchanged and eerie. Peaceful.
Hakone Shrine
A quick tour of the Hakone lake and shrines - and a scheduled 7pm dinner - the night and hotsprings were over in a flash. The sites and views were tremendous.
9 Hours Kyoto Sleeping Pods the very next day
9 Hours Kyoto
Only a curtain separates your pod from the world
Nine hours was founded by a startup artist - sleep in a pod (futuristic), shared clean showers and toilets and then out. A clean and sophisticated hostel? Sleeping in a pod. Points for being cool - except at 2am someone pulled up the curtain of my pod! There’s was on top of mine. But A+ on the execution.
We also stayed at Centurion Spa and Cabin - not pods but enclosed bunks - fancier with hot spa tubs, more tourist friendly and better décor, but at the end of the day something about the nine hours felt executed better - maybe because it was more authentic about getting in and out and not a strange in-between like centurion.
