We woke up well rested from our sleep on the futons,
and decided to go to the communal onsen for a relaxing hot spring. We put on our Yukatas and made the short
journey outside through the winter landscape and into the main building. The hot spring area was amazing. The bath is designed to make you feel as if
you are truly taking a hot spring bath right in the mountains as the stone work
is fashioned into a pseudo-cave like appearance. There are large windows that look out on to
the forested area with the creek running providing spectacular scenery as you
bathe. I literally could have spent
hours soaking in the warm waters. The
bath itself is deep enough in areas to completely submerge your body, and
provides strategically placed stones for you to sit on within the water to
provide a temporary relief should you get too hot.
We had brought our clothes with us as we decided to
use the large vanity area to get ready for our day rather than running back to
our villa since we would be enjoying our breakfast in the main building as
well. Breakfast was served in a
different room than the one where we had dinner, This room was very spacious, and once again
provide large picture windows to the natural beauty outside. My wife had a traditional Japanese breakfast while
I had a more western style breakfast.
The special part of the breakfast for me was the fact that a staff
member had woken up early in the morning and travelled into Takayama to a
bakery that is famous for its bread.
This bakery has a line in front of its doors well before it opens and
they had called ahead to secure bread for especially for me. After breakfast, we said our goodbyes to the
main staff and our driver took us into Takayama for a little more sightseeing
and shopping before we went to the train station. I really enjoyed my time at Wanosato as it
was a unique experience of traditional Japanese living and tradition that I had
not experienced previously. I would
recommend staying there, as long as you are prepared for the rustic and
non-modern charms that it has to offer.
Our first stop in Takayama was at their Historical
Government House. This complex dates
back to the days of the shogun, and was the main administrative building for
the area from approximately 1692 to 1868.
It was here that that the government functions for the area were carried
out. The site is quite large and
imposing with its outer walls and many buildings creating a maze for you to
tour through. The first few rooms are
mainly empty with small signs letting you know what once occurred in each room,
but the tour gets more and more interesting the deeper you venture into the
facility. The rooms include
administrative offices, court rooms, living chambers, kitchens, jails equipped
with torture devices from the period, as well as a large warehouse where rice
was stored as it was collected as the form of tax during the time. This facility is drenched in history and
gives a fascinating look at how Governments carried out their functions during
this period. There are wonderful
displays of a wide range of artifacts and it is definitely a must see for
anyone with a curiosity of Japanese history.
Our second stop was to the shops and streets of the
famous Takayama Morning Market. We spent
about an hour touring through various stores and shops as well as perusing the
various street vendors that were set up along the side of the street. Of course, there were many items that had
been crafted from the beautiful wood in Hida such as toys, kitchenware, sculptures,
home items and furniture. Also in
abundance were food items that are famous in this region with many Hida beef
products and Sake from the local breweries.
It was great way to spend our time waiting for the time to pass before
our train.
Our driver from Wanosato had patiently driven us to our destinations and once done with our shopping he dropped us off at the Takayama train station. We would now be boarding the Hida Wide View train to Nagoya. From Nagoya we travelled on the Shinkansen to Odawara. From Odawara we boarded the Odakyu Line and made our way to Ito.
At Ito Station, we were met by a driver from Izumiso who loaded
our bags into the van for the short drive to the Ryokan. The entrance to Izumiso is spectacular as
there is a long stairway that leads you into a beautifully lit front
entrance. Upon entering we were politely
met by the staff that ushered us to an empty table in the main seating area
away from the front desk. This seating
area is elevated above a beautiful Japanese Garden and visitors can enjoy the
view while enjoying drinks and talking with one another or using the free wifi
available on the main floor. We were
checked in by a wonderful employee who spoke fantastic English and was very
helpful in giving us information of the Ryokan.
She then escorted us to our large room.
Our room was a corner suite providing us with large windows with
great views of Ito. There was a main
room in which there was a short table with two chairs, a closet for our clothes
as well as our supplied Yukatas. They
also provided a safe in which we could lock our valuables. This room also had a small television and a
tea service station with everything required to make tea. Off of this room was a smaller area separated
from the main room by Japanese sliding screens (Shoji screens) with another short
table a chairs and a large windows with sliding glass doors providing access to
a rooftop garden/balcony. The suite also
had a second large room in which our luggage placed after been brought up by
the staff of the Ryokan. There was no
furniture in this room, but it did have access to the other section of our
rooftop balcony where our private open-air hot spring bath was located. The final rooms in the suite included our
vanity area, to which the toilet room was located to the left and our main
washing are with shower and cedar bath tub located to the right. All the main areas of the room were connected
by a small hallway located just off the main foyer giving the room a nice flow.
After checking out our room, we were given a tour of the entire
Ryokan by one of the managers. He showed
us a few different styles of rooms that their guest can enjoy. In all, Izumiso has 34 rooms in which 7 or 8
of them have their own private open-air hot spring baths. The rooms vary in sizes, but they all are
very spacious. Some even have two levels
with very large living quarters. In the common areas of the Ryokan one can
enjoy their free ping pong table, tour the displays on the ancient artifacts
that were discovered when the Ryokan was being built, enjoy free coffee or tea
in the main seating are of the lobby or shop in their large gift shop. There is also a small area that provides
brochures in multiple languages for the different attractions in the area.
Downstairs from the main lobby area is the outside entrance that
leads to the Japanese Garden that you saw from the main lobby. Immediately to you right is a fantastic and
tranquil foot bath area with a small little pool of hot spring water in which
to submerge your feet. Walking past the
foot bath you walk towards an outdoor pool that is filled with water from the
hot spring. It is a pool in every sense
of the word as you can enjoy swimming in the water wearing your bathing suit
and there are even pool toys supplied for your amusement. To the right of the poll the Japanese Garden
spread across the grounds with beautifully landscaped features. To the left of the pool are the entrances to
the separate onsens for men and women.
We were tired and hungry from our trip, so we decided to check out the
onsens in the morning and returned to our room to prepare for dinner.
We changed into our Yukatas and made our way down to
the dining room, located on the same floor as the entrance to the onsen and
garden. The section of the dining room
that we were seated initially had a bit typical restaurant feel but this
quickly disappeared as we were led to a semi-private booth beside a large
window overlooking the garden. Our
hostess for the evening introduced herself to us in near perfect English and went
over the menu for our Kaiseki dinner; she provided us with bot a Japanese and
English menu. Our dinner would consist
of 9 dishes and a dessert. 
The entire meal was delicious and the level of service provided to us by our hostess was quite excellent. She was very patient in answering all of our questions and never made us feel rushed in enjoying our meal.
We
returned to our room to discover that our futons had been laid out for us in
the main living room. With our long day
of sightseeing and travel followed by an excellent dinner, we were both more
than ready to get some sleep. The futons
were quite comfortable and it was not long before both of us were fast asleep.
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