Question about ryokan/onsen

Regarding futons: In most ryokan rooms there are several futons in the cupboard. So I often end up sleeping like a princess on the pea. Very comfortable :-)

Regarding onsen vs. hot bath in a hotel, I think the real onsen experience is one where you can enjoy rotenburo (i.e. a hot bath outside). For me taking a bath inside is fine for a quick bath, but it gets quickly too hot, while taking it outside has the benefit of getting you some fresh air. (In August however this is pretty limited).

If you want in August a really good onsen experience, try to go high. Either high in mountains or to Tohoku. If you have JR pass (or even if you don't you could do Towadako and Nyuto onsen as a one night trip from Tokyo). I would say it is at the limit of what I would do for one day, but the connection to Tokyo is good (Shinkansen right to Towadako). Then get up in the mountains to Nyuto onsen.

Your husband is aware that most onsen are separate gender, and fully naked right?

In some ryokans you can have your private onsen in the room, or sometimes they have a "family onsen" for rental / reservation. If you want to bath together...

Very few, well up in the mountains or in remote areas, are mixed gender.

Thank you again!

Yes I agree that we are absolutely exceed about Tokyo itself so I feel that the time we are spending there will be well used and as I said my husband is really not that much into all the ryokan onsen etc he is a city boy and has wanted to visit Tokyo for ages!
Also we prefer a more relaxed approach to sightseeing and sort of wandering around soaking up the vibe not crossing stuff off a list in a rush.

I have now found a very nice looking hotel in Yamashiro Onsen Kaga-shi - it is expensive but looks fabulous and I am considering it.

We are thinking of going there for one night then on to Kyoto for 2 nights and then back to Tokyo (as suggested by Kim combining the onsen on the way to Tokyo) OR reversing it and going straight to Kyoto then onsen than Tokyo am not sure if it makes a difference either way.

I will still leave Kamakura as an option for an easy day trip from Tokyo (if I get bored and my husband decides to hang out with his buddies :)

We are getting a 7 day JR pass so that would be included anyway.

The idea of bath hotels does also sound nice and I will look into that - however I just really want the whole experience of high end ryokan :)

Hi!

I've done a lot of public bath hotels. (The Keihan Universal, Candeo Kashihara, The Vista in Kanazawa, the Dormy in Nagano, the Mitsui in Sendai, the Intergate in Kyoto, the Visichio in Kyoto, and the Mitsui Premier in Nihonbashi all within the last 4 years. I've also done the Associa in Takayama but I'm not sure how to count that!) Some actually do have outside areas, they're just usually rooftop outside areas vs. being outside in nature. I thought the outside area at the Candeo Kashihara was really quite nice, and it's fun looking out at the city lights. The inside baths vary in quality. The Visichio's was quite simple compared to say the Vista in Kanazawa. Nearly all Dormy hotels offer a public bath which has an indoor and outdoor area, there are a few other chains that are known for almost always including a public bath. I have a friend who stayed at the one in Shibuya and liked it a lot.

I think @LikeBike means Tazawako and not Towadako. Towadako does not have a shinkansen stop right there, you need to transfer to a bus at Shichinohe-Towada or Shin-Aomori. It's quite pretty and cool but not an easy trip.

Good luck!

Yes, soooooooorry , I meant Tazawako.

But I think your new plan to build it in on your way between Kyoto and Tokyo makes sense.

Hello everyone,

It's me again :) so after reading through your posts and doing a bit of research I have come up with this itinerary which includes a night at a very luxurious (this is our treat!) ryokan close to Kaga Onsen.

Day one:
depart Tokyo train to Kanazawa (around 2hrs)
a few hours here with lunch
take train to Kaga Onsen (30 mins)
transfer to ryokan (arraged by them and it's a 15 min drive)
Spend afternoon and night in ryokan - they have a private outdoor onsen in each room
Morning check out after breakfast and we can either visit an onsen town for a few hours - the concierge recommended Yamashiro Onsen (which is where they are so no travel) or taxi to Yamanaka Onsen
After that we take train to Kyoto from Kanazawa/Kaga Onsen whichever is easier.

My question is:
The check in at the ryokan is 15:00 and we would def want to be there by then to make the most of the stay (it is expensive but they do offer quite a few activities on site and I would want to use it as much as we can).

We will probably take a morning train from Tokyo and question - do we spend a few hours in Kanazawa and have lunch there before we head to our ryokan or do we skip, go directly to Kaga Onsen, leave our bags at ryokan and explore the onsen towns instead of doing that the next day

The next day check out is 11:00 am do we just head straight to Kyoto.

To sum up I'm trying to figure out if Kanazawa will be interesting to see if it's hot and we are going to Kyoto anyway and we only really have a few hours.

This felt like the best compromise in terms of onsen experience (my husband will not enjoy going to the traditional ones with separate gender baths etc) and travel logistics.

I feel it's easier to do it on the way to Kyoto and just take a straightforward train back to Tokyo from Kyoto. The only thing that remains is Himeji castle - we might not be able to squeeze it in.
We will stay at a normal hotel in Kyoto and just soak in the city, see the sites and eat out in the many restaurants.

There's nothing stopping us from trying a bath house in Tokyo itself and I may do that since we have enough time in Tokyo so could be an option for one of our days.


Thanks again!!!

A very quick google search came up with this link:

https://www.crfashionbook.com/culture/a20772010/tokyo-bathhouses-guide...

Anyone tried these?? I'm assuming this is the kind of thing you can just decide to do on the day (might leave my husband and just treat it as a spa day to escape the heat!)

Thanks again for all your input

The ryokan sounds great, and you are smart to recognize that you don't want to just blow in at dinner time and then not have enough time to enjoy the special features of the place.

Whether to stop in Kanazawa is a good question. I have been there numerous times myself, and I would say that for me, the places I would go if I had two or three hours there and were en route to Kyoto would be just Kenrokuen garden and possibly Omicho Market. There is nothing like either of them in Kyoto (Nishiki Market has some of the same features but it's like night and day to compare it with Omicho, and it's impossibly crowded these days anyway.). Other people might pick some of the other venues in Kanazawa, like the modern art museum or chayamachi (which I don't find particularly interesting myself). But yes, it will likely be quite hot around midday when you get there. (My strong advice: don't mess with buses! Get a cab to take you immediately where you want to go.)

But when I go to an onsen for an overnight stay at a ryokan, I do usually arrive early and poke around the town, sometimes visiting the large baths, or maybe some temples or something. I believe there is (Kutani?) pottery in Yamashiro? Might be some interesting shops to browse. But it will be hot there, too!

I think you could probably have your cake and eat it too. You need to stop in Kanazawa anyway to change trains. In two hours (not three) you could pick just one spot to visit there, spend a good hour there, and then catch your Thunderbird train, giving you some time to poke around the onsen town a bit. If you time it right, you could possibly even have a nice lunch in Kanazawa as well. (But my advice is to keep it small. You want to be genuinely hungry to fully enjoy your ryokan dinner.) Or pick up a bento in the station, although you won't have much time to eat it on the train.

As for day-use baths in Tokyo, I think that's a great idea, although the heat might make you less interested in them. But I do recommend ditching your husband for a spell. I always do; in fact, I generally go off for several days and travel by myself (with my own hotels, even) during our trips there, and it makes for much better vacations for both of us!

Thank you Kim and I see you get my drift :)

My husband has friends from college and high school who are Japanese and live in Tokyo and I want to shop a bit (well, a lot :) so doing our own thing here and there is a given and we are quite ok with that especially that we don't have to worry about the kids and dragging them along.

I like you plan of just seeing one thing in Kanazawa and grabbing a light lunch but I also like the idea of wandering around the onsen town. I guess we could do both and I will look into it tonight to see what/where.

One last question of you don't mind I am about to order the 7 day JR pass is it worth paying extra for the first class carriage? Especially that we will be travelling on the 15-18 August which I think is a busy time?

It's about 120 pounds more for the 2 of us so not a tragic sum if the comfort etc is worth it but we are not really fussed so would rather spend it on something else if not worth it.

If you leave Tokyo fairly early, you can cram a surprising amount in before check-in time at your ryokan. Look at the schedules, etc. One thing to keep in mind is that the Thunderbird from Kanazawa to Kaga Onsen is not likely to be crowded at all, so in all likelihood you will get a seat without booking in advance. This means you don't have to worry too much about making sure you get to the station in time to catch a train you have reserved seat tickets for, which makes things much more relaxed if you want to stop in Kanazawa for a bit of sightseeing. The trip to Kaga Onsen isn't very long, anyway. I would not reserve this leg.

Whether to get a green pass is a hotly debated topic. People seem to have very strong opinions on this. I generally do get one these days (well, I have more money than I used to), and I love it, but I can see some itineraries where I wouldn't bother with one. Depends on how I would be using the pass, frankly. (If you have a green pass, you always need reservations to sit in the green car, which can sometimes be a nuisance.)

Kim quick question re the green pass since you tried it, is there a difference in seat comfort ie do the seats recline for example? My husband has lower back pain and is quite tall so if the seats are considerably more comfortable I would be happy to pay the extra

Thank you again and thanks for taking the time to answer my questions in detail I really appreciate it!

The difference in seats for green versus regular cars depends a lot on which train you are on, but generally speaking, yes, the green seats are more comfortable. Most (all?) seats on JR long-distance trains, including in the regular cars, recline at least a little, but the green seats will often recline more (this is true on most or all shinkansen trainsets, I believe). One thing that I actually don't particularly care for in the green cars on the shinkansen is that the seats all have a footrest. If you do the whole thing with the full recline and the footrest, I guess it is considerably more comfortable for some people. I would rather not have the footrests, myself. (They just get in the way, as far as I'm concerned, and they limit what you can put on the floor in front of your feet.) The green seats are also a little wider than regular seats on some trains. On limited express trains, the difference between regular seats and green seats varies a great deal depending on the train, and I honestly have never found the regular seats on any long-distance trains to be uncomfortable. But the green cars are usually less crowded and less "noisy." Also, in some cases they have seats available when the regular cars are booked out. (However, the converse can be true--sometimes the green car sells out first and you can only get reservations for regular seats, which is kind of a "waste" of your pass.)

So anyway, I would say that you should be okay with just a regular pass, but the green seats will likely be at least a little more comfortable, the green cars are generally more relaxing to ride in, and there are sometimes green seats available when the regular cars are booked out.

I’m 6ft 2 and the normal seats are roomy for me

Thank you very much Kim!

I am planning on buying the pass in the UK and activating it once in Japan - I am assuming that you cannot reserve or activate the pass until you are actually in Japan? I would probably do this on our first day there and I would reserve all our main long distance trains ASAP do you think it will be a problem in August to reserve seats? I guess we don't really have an option anyway ....

Sorry for hassling you with the questions.

How it generally works is you purchase an exchange order before you get to Japan, and then you turn it in for the actual rail pass after you get to Japan. As soon as you have the pass in hand, you can reserve seats; you don't have to wait until the first day that your pass is active. So yes, you can make all your reservations at once, if you want, and if you go to a JR office that allows that. (Some of them are more widely used by foreigners than others, and those places tend to set a limit. For example, at the airports nowadays, I believe they only let you make reservations for that day, or else maybe one additional reservation beyond that.)

I don't know how crowded the trains will be when you are there. Never been there in August myself. Japanese holidays (especially Obon) will affect the availability of seats, for sure. But even if a train is sold out, you can still ride in the nonreserved car, and unless it is one of the busiest travel days of the year (typically, this means the peak days of the year-end period and Golden Week), you will probably get a seat. In my experience, the nonreserved cars often have seats available even when the regular cars are quite crowded. I think that only once in the last 20 years have I had to stand for any length of time on a long-distance train in Japan. (But again, I don't go in August, so I have no experience with that.)

For JR East (e.g., Tokyo to Kanazawa), it is possible to make reservations online before you get to Japan, and some people who are worried about getting seats do use that system, but there are a lot of ins and outs and you really have to pay attention to the requirements and restrictions. I haven't ever done this myself.

It is actually possible to purchase the nationwide JR pass in Japan these days (up until a few years ago they did not allow this), but it costs more to do it that way, and it doesn't really save any time over redeeming an exchange order. If you are sure you are going to use the pass (seems to be the case for you), then I don't see much reason NOT to get the exchange order before you leave. I recommend starting the process a couple of weeks before you depart, if possible, just in case the agency selling you the exchange order screws up or something. (That happened to me on my last trip, but there was ample time for them to fix their error, which they did.)

Hi Kim I just bought the 7 day JR pass online and hopefully should get it by the 19th of July so enough time before our trip to fix any errors.

I was under the impression that it would be valid on the Shinkasen from Tokyo to Kanazawa? Or is it not???? oops I really hope it is!

Oh, yes―it’s definitely good for the shinkansen between Tokyo and Kanazawa! (The Hokuriku Shinkansen)

Thank you Kim and everyone else who was so helpful!

I have booked all my hotels now and just waiting for my JR Pass to be delivered and will be reserving our train seats.

We have decided to stay in Gion for our two nights in Kyoto - is that a good choice?

I am now properly excited that the logistics have been sorted!!

Gion will be fine. I'd say that given the shortness of your stay there, it is probably the best place to soak up the unique atmosphere of Kyoto (I would not say that about the Kyoto station area, for example). It may or may not be the most convenient for accessing whatever tourist sites you plan to visit, but I don't think it really makes a huge difference. Just stay away from buses in Kyoto and you'll be fine. (The best way to get to most places is a combination of cabs, trains, and walking.)

If you have questions or need help in Kyoto, I can heartily recommend the Kansai Tourist Information Center on the third floor of the Kyoto Tower Building. (Note that this is different from the Kyoto Tourist Information Center inside Kyoto Station.) Since it isn't near your hotel and is only open during regular business hours, it probably isn't going to be convenient for you to stop by, but if you happen to be in the station area and want maps, advice/help with restaurant bookings, or other things like that, it's a great resource. Wonderful people there!
https://www.tourist-information-center.jp/kansai/en/kyoto/

Parts of Gion are quite nice. Other parts are almost a red light district and are quite unpleasant at night (unless red light districts are your thing). Personally I wouldnt stay there again. We stayed in Shinmonzen dori for about 4 nights (maybe 8 years ago now), it pretty much put us off Japan. Shinmonzen dori is nice enough, but walking back toward the station/Gion corner at night was feral, just touts and host clubs and hookers. We ended up finding it better to walk in the other direction, cross the bridge and walk back that way along pontocho.

I mention all of that because it might be useful.

Thank you Kim and LazyPious that is interesting - definitely not a red light district seeker here and I can see why it was unpleasant....

Hmmmm so which parts of Gion should I avoid any particular area???

It just seemed like the most atmospheric (and as Kim said most traditional) since we are staying in Tokyo after all would be nice to have a change from the big city vibe..