Kurokawa Onsen - private family bath, they eat horses don't they, and the volcano is still smokin'
Trip Diary Day 20 - 18 April 2019
Kurokawa Onsen
Check out Episode 16 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.
Breakfast at 9 and then we drove to the nearby campground lookout area to see how Mt Aso was doing. Still erupting. We had a clear view across the valley. Forest Lodge is in a small forest but most of the region is stark and bare of trees so we had a clear view across the huge caldera. I wonder if the trees have been removed because of farming or is it just because of the volcano? Was there even a forest here before? Regardless we have an unobstructed view of an erupting volcano which if kind of amazing for a family from seismically dormant country.
We asked at the Kurokawa Onsen Tourist Information centre about private family onsens. Kurokawa Onsen is an onsen town. There are hot Springs are everywhere. It’s in the name of the town. It would be disappointing to arrive in a town like Kurokawa Onsen, or Nozawa Onsen, to find there were no onsens. The reason there are so many hot springs has to do with the entire country be seismically active. Hot water just bubbles up out of the ground. When we were up in Hokkaido a couple of ryokans just ran a hose pumping out hot water down their driveways to keep them clear of snow. As someone who grew up in a country that often has water restrictions seeing water used so haphazardly is jarring.
Many onsen towns have public onsen available to use for a small fee. In towns like Kurokawa Onsen most of the hotels and ryokans make their onsens available to non-guest customers too. In Kurokawa Onsen there is an onsen hopping ticket available for 1300 yen. Using the ticket you can visit any 3 onsens in town. But only the public onsens. That is, the larger share onsens. We wanted to book a private family onsen. They had to booked separately and generally cost more. There were a few good mixed baths in the mix but Georgia was adamant about not going to a public bath. Mixed bathing onsen are fairly rare in Japan now so it was a surprise to find some in Kurokawa. Otherwise we’d be separated by sex. It is much for fun to soak in an onsen with the whole family. The woman at the TI found us three options for private family baths at three ryokans. For everything you need to know about onsens including the onsen hopping ticket check out the Kurokawa Ryokan Association’s website. Browse the site, they have heaps of accurate information about Kurokawa in general.
We strolled around to the first two. They were nearby. The first charged 800 yen (AU$11) for adults and 500 (AU$6) for the kids. The second was 2000 yen (AU$25) for the family. Unfortunately neither were available right away and only had inside options anyway. The first had some great looking onsen eggs out front but we decided to go for the eggs later. The third ryokan was just out of town and required a drive. It also had multiple private bathrooms. inside and out.
Gekkoju (Aya Momiji)
Gekkoju is a day spa and ryokan. On Google maps it is called Gekkoju but on their website it is apparently called Momiji. Whatever it is called we called it home for an hour or so.
I managed to use my non-existent Japanese skills to confuse the crap out of the women at Gekkoju’s reception. I thought I was asking what time we could have a bath. They were saying when we had to be finished by. Obviously they knew if we had fronted up right now we wanted a bath right away. After some confusion they sorted us out. We used a ticket machine, like a vending machine, to book the onsen and then we bought two small onsen towels. The bath was 1500 JPY (AU$18) and the towels 200 JPY (AU$2.50) each.
With basket carrying the towels, soap, shampoo and conditioner, and a hair dryer in hand we headed for the bath. Behind a curtain was change room and inside through a glass door the onsen. A lovely rock open air rotenburo with a view of the green valley and hills. A rotenburo is Japanese for open air hot spring - an outside onsen. The water was hot but not too hot - probably in the high 30s. We enjoyed our 50 minutes of wallowing, relaxing, splashing and being one with nature. We dressed and left. We were so relaxed we didn’t feel like doing much except wander around Kurokawa onsen and eat.
Touristing and souveniring in Kurokawa
First stop back in Kurokawa was the face onsen. It is a wooden box over a hot spring. There is a small door at the top you open and stick your face in. Then you steam your face. It is quite refreshing. No really.
Then it was food shop window shopping. Roku the patisserie was just across the way from the face onsen but we decided should come last so we would be back later. The first food we bought were rice crackers from a small souvenir food type shop. I think it was called Sugi Bee. According to the latest information I could find they sell souvenir honey. It might have change. If not it was next door. We tried a variety of rice crackers like soy, laver seaweed, granulated sugar, and sugar and plum. We couldn’t resist mochi on a stick (miterashi dango). We ate that in the shop.
Next was Yunon where we had minced horse meat cutlets, horse meat croquet, a hot dog on a stick, chicken nuggets and an iced coffee. We also bought some souvenir Jersey Milk snacks. I really don’t know what the hell the Jersey Milk snacks are but from what I gather they are little sweets made from the milk of Jersey cows. And they are flippin' delicious.
After filling ourselves on horse and cow products we wandered back down the street to another shop, Shirotamako Japanese Sweets & Tea Shop, for another iced coffee and sweet little balls of mochi in a sugar sauce with sweet powdered soy sprinkled on top. There is always time for another iced coffee and mochi. I tried to make myself understood with my decidedly un-awesome Japanese skills again to ask the sweet girl serving that we wanted two iced coffees. One with out ice, both without sugar, and with real milk. Fussy aren’t we? With patience of a saint and a sweet smile she did exactly this. The iced coffees were superb. So were the slippery little sweet mochi.
So let’s see. We had lunch, snacks, dessert, iced coffees and more snacks. That means it must be time for second dessert. So we finally went back to Roku Patisserie for milk puddings and cheese cake. To be fair we bought most of it for takeaway to have later or the next day. I’ve probably mentioned my love for Japanese milk pudding. Often. They’re somewhat like a creme caramel. I was asked recently what I would choose for a last meal. I had no idea. But after writing this I suspect it would have to be a Japanese milk pudding. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that we bought some more here. Were they good? Of freaking course.
Some photography in the shrine across the way from Roku. The kids poured water on their hand and tried to emulate people who knew what they were doing. Hopefully we didn’t come across as disrespectful. Most people seem tickled to see little kids attempting the water purification ritual anyway.
We went up the stairs to the grocery liquor store on the main road and bought some local Jersey milk ice cream, because you can never have enough dessert, and a local Kurokawa ale and dropped it off at our cabin before heading to the lookout for more volcano photography. Back to cabin for a rest and more photography, we went and saw the sunset at the lookout spot, before driving back into town find the place with a picture of Japanese beef and an egg outside which we’d seen earlier in the day. It was closed. We found an izakaya which also looked good but it was reservation only. Then we found Naka near the river.
Naka
Naka were open and we didn’t need a reservation. It is one of the traditional shoes off, sit on the floor with the table over a hole deal type izakayas. Just as a reminder, an izakaya is a casual pub like eating place and they often serve a number of small dishes tapas style. We had the pork katsu set, a chicken dumpling and rice and soup set, sashimi basashi - horse meat sashimi, two large glasses of sake, and an OJ. All this for only 7100 yen (AU$88). Basashi is a regional specialty so we had to try it. It wasn’t the first time we have had horse meat sashimi. We had some when we visited in 2013. Georgia was two. We had a plate to share and she ended wolfing most of it down only pausing enough to say “sushi”. She still likes horse.
Our waitresses was very friendly. She guessed that Brandy was a boy even with the kawaii hair. Nearly everybody assumes he is a girl. This most excellent meal was done by about 8 so we went back to the cabin to relax and post Insta stories about volcanoes. We were going to Nagasaki tomorrow. There is a ferry across the narrow strait of the Ariake Sea from Kumamoto to Nagasaki Prefecture but it appeared that the ferry was out of action for the week. We had to drive the long way around the Ariake Sea. But the long way is only a 3 hour drive. The shorter drive then ferry would have taken 4.5 hours and cost a lot more.
The stay at the cabin had been great. The bunks were not so comfortable because they use the thin futon style mattresses. They didn’t have any spares in the cabin so I couldn’t pad up my bed. Oh well. The shower, kitchen and the rest of the place had been fine.
Epic Family Road Trip Japan on Youtube
Check out Episode 16 of our Epic Family Road Trip Across Japan.
Map of all the places we visited in Kurokawa Onsen
Many of the pictures on this page are by Michelle. Essentially the good ones. Michelle retains full copyright and they can not be reproduced without permission. For licensing and using the photos contact Michelle at Michelle Newnan Photography
