Day 4 – Morning in Kyoto and travelling to Kaga Onsen to Beniya Mukayu

We awoke to a beautiful morning in Kyoto after enjoying a fantastic night’s sleep in our room at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto.  Day 4 in Japan was scheduled to be another travel day as we would be leaving historic and beautiful Kyoto and heading to our next destination, Kaga Onsen.



We packed our bags and made our way downstairs for breakfast.  I first made a quick stop in the main seating are of the lobby to take advantage of the free Wifi to send some quick emails and check the news back home.



I then joined my wife in “The Grill” restaurant located at the far end of the main lobby.  This restaurant is bright and spacious as it is laid out with an open concept, and is not closed off by walls to the rest of the lobby, but with planters and other minimal partitions allowing patrons to have some privacy while eating but to also enjoy the buzz and activity happening in the lobby.  It also has an expansive view of the Japanese garden through the large picturesque windows at its far end.

Similar to the Italian restaurant where we enjoyed dinner, “The Grill” also has an open kitchen concept which features a brick oven where a variety of food is freshly prepared. 

Our breakfast was a buffet style, and offered a brunch type fare in a wide selection of food.  My wife and I really found the food to be quite fresh and delicious, and the wide variety of selection available easily satisfied our early morning hunger.  Once again, the service proved to be exceptional.  A special treat for me was in speaking with one of the chefs, who was a Canadian from a city in British Columbia quite close to Vancouver.

 

We would like to thank all of the wonderful staff at the Hyatt Regency in Kyoto for providing us with such a wonderful stay and for all of the help and assistance while we were there.  Special thanks to their Sales Manager, whose generous donation of his time for us and his great and knowledgeable tour of the hotel was greatly appreciated.

We took a taxi to Kyoto Station and, using our JR pass, we reserved seats for ourselves on the Thunderbird Train from Kyoto to Kaga Onsen.  With the JR Pass, we have free travel on the system and visiting the ticket office was not a necessity, but we always like to reserve our seats as the reserved seating cars tend be a little less full and allows for a more relaxing trip.  I am confident that we would never have been without a seat had we not reserved them in advance on any of the trains we took (including the Shinkansen –“Bullet Trains”), but I would recommend the reserved seating for the peace of mind that it will bring during your trip.

These seats can be reserved by visiting a JR Ticket office located in all of the train stations.  Just look for the sign like the one shown here.

 

Beniya Mukayu

We arrived at Kagaonsen and were met personally by the Manager of Beniya Mukayu, the Ryokan that we would be staying at.  After he quickly got our bags into the van we were on our way to the Ryokan.  On our way the Manager provided us with some information and highlights of Kaga Onsen.  This personal touch was fantastic and definitely appreciated after our long train journey.

 

 

 

 As you drive up to Beniya Mukayu, you are immediately impressed with the facility.  It presents itself to you as a place of luxury nestled into a wilderness backdrop that tells you that you are about to have an experience of deep relaxation and pleasure.  We were there in March just before the blossoms of Spring arrived.  I can just imagine how even more beautiful this area is from Spring to Fall.

 

 
Entering the lobby I was struck by the simplicity of the furnishing and the casualness of the atmosphere, this almost Zen like feeling upon entering was accentuated by the soothing aroma of incense that filled the lobby.  We were met by the owner of Beniya Mukayu, Sachiko, who, wonderful and friendly personality was able to make us feel like old friends even though we had just met.  Once again, our bags were transported to our room for us and we were given a personal tour of their facility by Sachiko who, I must mention, speaks great English.

To put it simply, this facility is amazing.  The tour started in the an area just off of the main lobby where guest can sit in a peaceful environment, and enjoy the gorgeous views of the trees and garden outside while enjoying a beverage for the small bar off to the side.  A real specialty is their freshly squeezed juice, available from a variety of fruits to choose from. 

 

  

We then went up a small flight of stairs to the right of the lobby where we entered a large library that provides for a really serene and quiet respite for any travelers.  The quiet seating area in the main area of the library is designed with little in the way of decorations or distractions with various seating options to meet the needs of the guests.  If you would like to read, but unfortunately forgot your own book, a separate room provides various reading materials in a wide variety of topics in both Japanese and English.

 

Our next stop was their spa area where their professional staff is highly skilled in providing their clients with a variety of treatments based upon an Herbal Matrix, where they will carefully select herbs to prepare your herbal balls, herbal infusions, and herbal teas based upon your own physical condition and requests.  Their guests can enjoy a variety of treatments including Body Treatments, Facial Treatments, Foot and Head Massages, and other treatments available depending on the season. 



This facility is truly designed to provide their guest with the ultimate in relaxation and comfort, allowing you to truly let your concerns and tensions slip away as they use techniques and minerals to soothe and rejuvenate your body and mind.  We made a quick stop to the entrance to their communal Hot Spring facilities, of which I will write more of later in this blog as we did not enter the facility as part of the tour for the privacy of those using the facilities.




Next to the spa area is their large dining hall.  This room is very unique in its design as it not only is the venue for their meals, but also serves as their facility where guests can participate in yoga classes every morning.  The room is essentially divided into two, with the far half composing of the main seating area for meals and the closer half having more of a multi-functional feel for other activities, such as yoga.  The wooded pillars that occupy the room, allows the staff to partition the room as required.

 

Sachiko, then proceeded to give us a tour of the various styles of guest rooms that they have at Beniya Mukayu.  There are only 16 rooms in total, and I am assuming that this is to assist in providing a quiet and non-rushed atmosphere at the Ryokan and to enhance the relaxation of their guests. They provide Japanese style rooms, Western style rooms, Japanese/Western style rooms and their Wakamurasaki Suite rooms.  Beyond the fact that each and every one of these rooms is spectacular in terms of the layout, amenities and comfort, each room also has its own private open-air hot spring bath for personal enjoyment. 





Most Ryokans that we visited on our trip only provided individual private hot springs in a few specially selected rooms; Beniya Mukayu has made this a standard for all of their guests.






The rooms themselves are all very spacious and provide you with a fantastic escape.  All the rooms have a great view of the luxurious grove of trees that populate the grounds of Beniya Mukayu or of the town in Yamashiro (Japanese/Western room) depending on the floor.  The beds in every room are quite comfortable and spacious, upon our arrival we were asked what type of pillows we would prefer to use during our stay (I chose feather, while my wife chose a memory foam pillow).  Depending on the style of room you will either have an open-air or covered veranda.  In the Wakamurasaki Suite, obviously the larger choice to be had, you are provided with a dining table in the sunken kotatsu style (low to the floor but you sit normally with your legs going into the open are under the table). 


The bathrooms in each room also come fully stocked with the various lotions that include a cleansing gel, facial wash, lotion, emulsion, and a body lotion.  These are unique lotions are made specifically for Beniya Mukayu and were definitely wonderful to use and nourishing to the skin.  Each room also has separate seating areas, a television, and in-suite Wi-Fi.  In all, they are designed foe maximum comfort and relaxation, and trust me, they deliver.

After our tour, we settled into our room, the Japanese/Western style room, and enjoyed a welcoming cup of tea and confectionery.  We both put on the traditional Japanese Yukata and headed down to the communal hot springs.   These facilities were very clean and quite large.  The main changing area provided baskets in which to place my Yukata and sandals, and the washing area was kept very tidy.  After washing, I entered the communal open-air bathe to enjoy a long hot soak in the rejuvenating alkaline spring water kept a approximately 40 degrees Celsius.  The open-air bath was a large cedar tub, and since I was the only one there at the time it provided more than enough room.  I would guess that 5 or 6 men could enjoy it at the same time with no problems.  The bath itself, was nestled against the grove of trees that you see from most of the rooms at Beniya Mukayu, but of course your privacy is preserved by the placement of bamboo and trees.  Before leaving the facility I tried out to indoor hot spring which was much larger than the outdoor one, and by being indoors I could really feel the effects of the heat on my face as the steam rose from the water.  Overall, a thoroughly pleasurable and stress relieving experience.

As I walked back to my room, in the full knowledge that my wife would still be in the women’s communal hot spring, I stopped at the lounge area of the lobby to enjoy a complimentary glass of freshly squeezed juice.  I chose apple.  This small glass of juice was quite refreshing after my hot spring, and the juice itself was 100% pure with nothing added which made it absolutely amazing to enjoy.  While enjoying my juice my wife arrived and after she enjoyed her juice, we were invited to experience their tea ceremony.
 

This tea ceremony took place in a small, intimate cabin situated amongst the grove of trees.  The ceremony was provided to us by Sachiko’s husband.  This ceremony was definitely more formal and traditional than the previous one that I had experienced at Hoshinoya (again, that casual ceremony was great in it’s ability to prepare me for future ceremonies).  We entered the room wearing our Yukatas and kneeled on the small cushion next to a burning candle.  The room itself was very cozy and the dim lighting provided a real authentic ambience.  Our host appeared from a side room wearing traditional robes and provided us each with a confectionery to cleanse our palates.  As we ate this, he prepared the tea from scratch using the traditional Japanese methods.  We both took our turns enjoying the tea.  Afterwards, he was more than happy to answer any of our questions and was a very gracious host. We then returned to our room and rested before dinner.

Dinner was served in the main dining hall and was Kaiseki style, this is where several small dishes are served individually over the course of the meal.  Typically, a Ryokan will base the menu of their Kaiseki dinner in consideration of the specialties of their region in Japan as well as the current season.  Thankfully for me, this meant that we were going to experience a glorious 9 course meal where 5 of the dishes were featuring snow crab – a personal favourite.  As mentioned previously, there are only 16 rooms in total at Beniya Mukayu and a wonderful result is that the dining room is not extremely busy or noisy.  A Kaiseki meal is meant to be an experience, if not an adventure, and the staff and owner of Beniya Mukayu provide you with a level of service that is unparalleled.  They prepare the courses, often right at you table, and assist you throughout the meal that makes you feel as if you are their only guests without ever becoming bothersome.  This is a fine line, and they worked it to perfection.  Here is a little video of our meal and pictures/descriptions:

Our dinner was completely fantastic, and with its conclusion we were more than ready for bed.  We returned to our rooms and ready and excited to see what the next day would hold.

Contact Izumi through her website to plan your vacation to Japan!