Day 4: Bullet trains and Shibuonsen

 I woke up early and finished packing my bags this morning, today is my “rest day” and my that I meant I only walked 5 miles and I spend a lot of time sitting in hot springs. 

As I packed I had a chat with a couple of Aussie ladies who invited me to come stay in their spare room outside of Sydney when I make my way to Australia. They said they live right by the water. It was really sweet and we exchanged contact and travel plans! Always more ideas of cool things to see. 😊

Then I headed for the train station to catch the bullet train. Along my walk I stopped at a coffee vending machine. They have vending machines for everything here, ramen, electronics, hot and cold drinks, alcohol, cigarettes. Whatever you need. My friend, Alex, recommended Boss Rainbow coffee, and I got a can. It was delicious. Even though it said “hot” and I knew it was hot, it felt weird to get a hot canned bevy from a vending. The coffee was sooooo good. I’m usually quite picky on coffee and I loved it. I’ll definitely be getting it again. 

Next I headed to Tokyo station to catch my bullet train. So chaotic. It wasn’t too difficult, but it was sooooo busy and there are just so many stations. I got my reserved seat and headed to the waiting room to do a little work and wait for my train. I also bought a bento box at the station to snack on once I’m on the train. I had fried chicken, rice, pickled plum, some pickled slaw type side, and charred green onions. It was a great lunch. 

Supposedly the train had Wi-Fi, but it was spotty, luckily, I had lots of work downloaded in my computer and I was able to get some done on the first hour leg of my journey. 

I got to my next transfer, it was an absolutely gorgeous train ride going into the mountains. I passed a bunch of apple orchards, as well as, a bunch of vineyards on the way.

 I finally arrived and the owner of the Ryokan (essentially a Japanese bed and breakfast) picked me up at the station. We were supposed to go to the snow monkey park, but he said that they haven’t seen any monkeys today, so I was better off trying tomorrow morning. 

I was shown around the Ryokan. Shibuonsen is a small resort town known for the proximity to the monkeys, as well as its hot springs. Onsen means hot springs in Japanese. Shibuonsen has 9 public onsen you can use if you stay here. You wear a robe and these wooden slippers called geta and you walk to all of the onsen. 

I’m not going to lie though. They are about as comfortable as they look. At one point I switched to my birks cause I started to get a blister, and a bunch of older Japanese ladies pointed and laughed at me, so I figured it was better to put on the wooden shoes than risk someone being upset instead of just laughing. Lol. 

The onsens are very traditional, so they are separated into men’s and women’s and no tattoos are allowed. Luckily as a tattoo-less cis-gendered woman that wasn’t an issue for me. If it is an issue though, most Ryokans (including mine) have private onsens you can use alone or just with the people you came with. You go in the onsen and take off your geta and leave them at the door and leave all your clothes in a cubby (no swimsuits/clothes allowed). Once in the tub room you take a bucket and rinse your body before getting in the pool. They can be VERY hot but there is also a cold water tap if you need to cool it down a bit. Since it’s the off season I only shared a onsen twice, which was pretty nice to always have them to myself. 

After visiting 2 onsens I went back to the Ryokan to change and I went for a little hike around town, visiting the temples and shrines.

 It started to rain and I decided it was the perfect time to go back to the hot springs. After going to a few more I went back to the Ryokan to rest and got some ramen for dinner. 

By the time I was done it was really cooling off so it was time to go back to the onsens and complete the 9 onsens for good luck. There is supposed to be a towel you get stamps for at each pool, but instead I just put them in my stamp book. I have no idea if I put them right side up, in fact I’m sure some of them are not, but that’s okay. 

I knew when I booked that the shower was “shared”. I thought like a hostel it was just a shower stall that everyone shared, but it was actually another onsen and a group shower like a locker room. I definitely wasn’t expecting that, but it was fine after the initial surprise. 

Oh and here is the bath house inspiration for spirited away! 

Anyway, rested and exhausted it’s an early bed time for me.