Toyooka: Kinosaki Onsen Town
This is the twelfth recap for LOHOjapan, my 3 week trip to Japan with my boyfriend. After visiting Arashiyama to see monkeys and a disappointing visit to the bamboo forest, we make up for it with my favourite part of our trip!
Gion
Today is the day we check out of our hotel in Gion, Kyoto and head towards a rural town called Kinosaki. But before we do that, we wake up bright and early to go to Fushimi Inari Shrine.
Fushimi Inari Shrine
Fushimi Inari-taisha is the head shrine of the kami Inari. Kami means “god” and Inari means “fox” (among other things). So this shrine worships the “fox god” and its famous for its red torii gates and fox/dog statues.
Unlike the Todaiji Temple, this shrine has a route you can take. This route is really more like a hike and can take 2-3 hours to walk up and back down. While walking this route, you will pass by and see 32,000+ red gates.
We decide not to do the full hike because we do not have 3 hours to kill before our train. Also, we are here mostly for pictures, which is another reason why we arrived at Fushimi Inari Shrine by 8:30 am. My recommendation is to arrive before 8 am if you can. Food stalls and gift stalls are not open yet, but there are barely any people to get in the way of your pictures. Giant tour groups will arrive at around 8:30/9 am.
Fushimi Inari Shrine is quite beautiful and the red gates feel wonderful to walk under. They progressively get bigger as you continue to walk up. One cool note is that you can actually get your own red gate if you donate to the shrine. The more you donate, the bigger your gate will be!
I recommend taking pictures on the way down because when you walk down, you will that the red gates have writing on them (the names of people who have donated to the shrine).
Of course, the novelty of walking through these red gates become repetitive even after the first section. Since we are not planning to walk all the way up, we embark on our secret mission to find Fushimi Inari’s secret bamboo forest!
Fushimi Inari Shrine’s secret bamboo forest
Because our pictures from Arashiyama’s bamboo forest got corrupted somehow, we searched online for other options. Eventually, we found this great article talking about a secret and 100% natural bamboo forest inside Fushimi Inari Shrine. We followed its instructions to go down an off-beat path near the washroom building and easily found this secret little bamboo forest!!!
There is no one in this area. Zero. Nada. Just me and my boyfriend and a bunch of bamboo and even some random red gates. It is very peaceful and quiet and the sunlight makes it look like something out of a Studio Ghibli film.
Compared to Arashiyama’s bamboo grove, this is much smaller. It’s a short little path but it is completely empty. The walls of this bamboo forest are not as well groomed – not all the bamboo are standing straight and tall. Some are gnarly and sticking out, but it makes it look and feel more natural. There are also giant spiderwebs and I got some crazy mosquito bites so be careful, but aside from that, we really enjoyed this mini escape from the hustle and bustle of Fushimini Inari Shrine.
This is also around when the giant tour groups start arriving, so we enjoy our little adventure.
Bullet train to Kinosaki
We leave Fushimi Inari Shrine and head to Kyoto Station to take the shinkansen (bullet train) to Kinosaki. It is approximately a 2.5 hour train ride and costs around $50 for a one way ticket.
Lunch: Conana Kyoto Porta
As usual, there are a ton of options to choose from at Kyoto Station. We are kind of lost and end up in a basement restaurant floor, where the restaurants are much cheaper than the restaurant floors upstairs. In the end, we choose a Japanese pasta restaurant called Conana.
We decide to order and share the lunch special, which is around $10 USD for a soup, salad and pasta of the day. For the pasta, we choose their cod roe and squid pasta. We also add on a omelette rice for another $8.
The soup and salad are very small, and the pasta and omurice portion is also on the smaller side, but we are not too concerned because the prices are cheap. The pasta, as unassuming as it looks, is quite good. This is because we love the cod roe sauce! It’s very similar to the Japanese pastas you can get at Cafe de l’orangerie in Vancouver.
The omurice is a little disappointing, but we know this is a pasta place so we are not expecting too much.
Kinosaki
Kinosaki is a 1300 year old onsen (hot spring) town recommended by my sister, who visited after being recommended by a Japanese friend. They are famous for 7 different public hot springs and the charming atmosphere of a ryokan atmosphere. Ryokans are traditional Japanese inns. You stay in a tatami mat room and the inn workers will prepare meals and futons for you to sleep on.
When we arrive at Kinosaki train station, we are immediately greeted by friendly train staff who ask us if we are staying at a ryokan. We tell them the name of our ryokan and receive a free bus ride to the entrance of our inn.
Accommodations: Tsutaya Inn
The ryokan we are staying in is called Tsutaya. This is also the ryokan my sister stayed at when she visited Kinosaki.
Like many of the other ryokans, Tsutaya is beautifully constructed from wood and a traditional design. It has 3 floors and a total of 14 Japanese rooms. Generally, it is expensive to stay in a ryokan in Kinosaki. We only booked 1 night accommodations with a wagyu beef steak and sea bream course dinner + breakfast and the total for 2 adults came to 33,000 yen (~$391.95 CAD).
Upon arrival to Tsutaya, we realize that the inn workers speak perfect English – almost no accents at all, which is kind of rare for Japan. We are given slippers and get to choose a yukata design before being shown our room.
We have fun and struggle to put on our yukata. A yukata is similar to a kimono (traditional Japanese clothing) except they use thinner fabric. It’s more of a “summer” outfit.
The room is spacious but one thing that is kind of weird is that the toilet is in a separate room (0.5 room. It is just a toilet in there, which is not too uncommon in Japan) but the sink is all the way on the other side of the room lol. You will notice that there are no beds or futons laid out. They will prepare this when it is night time.
Our attendant is actually from Taiwan and again, speaks perfect English. She is super sweet and has the most calming voice ever. She asks us when we want dinner prepared, and we tell her we want to walk around the city and try a foot bath first. Hearing this, she lets us know that dinner will be ready when we return.
She gives us tea and a little welcome snack – it is a lemon yuzu biscuit made in house.
Things to do: Explore Kinosaki town
We want to do a full body hot spring after our dinner so we can relax and fall asleep right after. So, we go to a cute little foot bath outside one of the public baths. It is really fun to walk around in the sandals they provide for you. We feel like a samurai!
Kinosaki has such a rustic charm to it. It almost feels like we have stepped back in time because everyone is wearing yukatas and all the stores look so small and casual. Even the local 711 and Family Mart look different.
There are lots of willow trees and cute bridges and benches for photo-taking. I can imagine in the winter time or spring time when there is snow or cherry blossoms covering these branches, the town simply comes more alive.
One thing we notice is that there are not a lot of restaurants. We walked past some cute retail stores and a small arcade, convenience stores and liquor stores, but food choices are very limited. We are glad we chose to dine at our ryokan. Keep reading below for our best meal in our whole trip.
Dinner: Tsutaya Inn
As part of our booking, we select the wagyu beef steak and sea bream course dinner. This is the more expensive course, their regular dinner is a shabu-shabu, but we thought what the hell let’s do the more expensive option since everything is already expensive.
Wow, am I ever glad we did! This meal is a kaiseki (multi-course Japanese meal) and it was so amazing!! There is so much food and everything taste so wonderful and local and fresh.
We start off our meal with some wagyu. Wagyu is a premium cut of beef and we even have these cute little stone grills to cook them on. The meat and the veggies cook quite fast on this stone thing and the meat is so tender it feels like it is just melting on your tongue.
Next, I focus on the soba noodles. They are made in-house and presented in a super cute bowl that opens to 3 different plates. The soba tastes refreshing in a cold broth. The noodles are green, which I find interesting but it doesn’t particularly change the taste.
Next, we have a plate of sashimi, including a sweet prawn (looove these), salmon and I forget what else lol sorry. The sashimi is fresh and the cuts are actually quite thick.
We are very surprised our meal includes crab because it didn’t say anything about crab in the meal description. The crab meat is cold and sweet, not salty at all and is also conveniently easy to eat since they cut it up for you in an attractive way.
After finishing these 3 items, they clear the space and gives us a whole new set of dishes to eat. The first thing they put down is this scallop and fruit salad. It looks unassuming but Japanese fruits are amazing and these grapes were so good??? Like why didn’t we just buy grapes and eat them omg. The scallops are large and taste very natural. They are served raw.
There is a cute little cup of tofu. It is similar to agedashi tofu – deep fried tofu sitting in a dashi broth with radish on top and some greens. These babies are a pop of flavour. Feels like my mother just hugged me.
And of course, we are presented with our sea bream in a large dish. The fish is simmered and grilled with this lovely sauce that makes it rich but not too overwhelming. The fish meet falls off the bone at the touch of my chopsticks.
We also have a plate of assorted tempura, fried very nicely. Not oily at all.
We are stuffed full and wonder when they will stop bringing food out to us. Of course, they come in again with a bowl of miso soup and white rice.
And even after that, they come in again to give us dessert. The dessert is a simple green tea cake that looks like it came from T&T supermarket (lol). So yes, the dessert wasn’t the best but the rest of the meal is A+++.
We suffer from food coma but prepare to leave the ryokan for our night time hot spring experience.
Things to do: Kinosaki onsen (hot springs)
So the most amazing thing about Kinosaki is that if you are staying in one of their signature ryokans, you get this hot spring pass for free. The pass gives you unlimited access to any of the 7 public hot springs in town until the time of your check-out. If you are not staying at a ryokan, you can purchase this day pass for 1,300 yen (~ $15 CAD).
You may be wondering: why do I want to go to a public bath house? I don’t wanna see naked people.
Certainly, there are private bathing options available depending on your ryokan, but I am told by Japanese people that these private tubs do not actually contain the special hot spring water. It is actually illegal for them to do that, so it’s really just a normal tub of hot water. Since we came here for hot springs, it doesn’t make sense to not actually bathe in the hot springs water, right?
Hot spring rules
There are strict rules when bathing in a hot spring, and these rules are plastered in English before you enter any of the public baths.
- Enter the correct change room. Unfortunately for couples, male and female are always separated in the public bath houses. Yes, this means if you are just traveling with your partner, you will have to go into the baths alone.
- Inside the changing rooms, take off all your clothes and only bring a small towel inside. They provide you a locker and key. Yes you have to be completely naked. Small towels are often provided by your ryokan.
- Shower first. Before going in, you must first go to one of the shower stations to clean yourself. These shower stations usually have a small mirror, shower head, little stool, and some shampoo and body wash for you to use. Even if you have already bathed that day, you need to still rinse yourself off before entering the sacred waters.
- Sit back and relax in the pools. But only if you tie your hair up first. Your hair cannot touch the water – it is a big NO NO. Also, remember that little towel you brought in? That can also not touch the water. I mostly left it on top of my head.
- After you are done, use your small towel to dry yourself a little before entering the change room. This reduces the amount of dripping water you are bringing into the change room. Once you are inside the change room, you can use your big towel to completely dry yourself. There are hair dryers and other things to help you get dressed and back outside.
Kouno-yu onsen
Looking at the map, we decide to go to a hot spring that is close to our inn. Our original choice is to check out Satono-yu onsen, but it is close to the train station and far from our inn (you can’t run in those samurai sandals!). We are told that Kouno-yu onsen is the local’s favourite so we decide to choose this onsen instead.
We wear little vests provided from our ryokan since it is night time and colder now. Yukatas have a hole under your armpit so there is definitely a draft.
I follow all the rules and enjoy the indoor tub which is actually really hot. After awhile, I try their outdoor pool. I like the outdoor pool more because the air is cool and it’s not as stuffy inside. I shyly call our my boyfriend’s name in case he is also in the outdoor bath across the fence but there is no response so I just sit there in silence. The night sky twinkles and steam rises into the darkness. I see a giant spiderweb and ignore it.
Yogurt drink
I can only stay in the hot springs for 1 hour at most. Any time more than that is a little too much since both the indoor and outdoor pools are hot and you can get dizzy for staying too long. I even think 30 minutes is enough time.
After getting dressed again and feeling super relaxed, I meet my boyfriend back in the lobby. He tells me I must purchase a yogurt drink from the vending machine as it is something Japanese people do after going to a onsen.
The yogurt drink looks kinda sketchy to be honest, but it tastes just like any Yakult you find in Vancouver. Very refreshing!
Things to do: sleep on a futon
We arrive back to our ryokan after our hot spring experience and see that our room has changed. They moved the large dining table to the side and instead set up 2 futons on the floor for us to sleep.
The futons are large and the blankets are soft, light and fluffy. We are very excited for our Japanese slumber party ad set up the TV to watch a Studio Ghibli film and drink beer. We fall asleep very fast.
Final thoughts on day twelve
This was by far my favourite day/part of our trip. The town of Kinosaki is so charming and beautiful. All the locals are super nice and welcoming and everything you can think of is taken care of for you. It is also important to note that Kinosaki is a tattoo friendly town! Many onsens in Japan will deny you access if you have even a tiny tattoo anywhere.
It was so much fun to wear yukatas and walk around in those samurai sandals. I think if we visited Kinosaki during some sort of a festival, that would be even better. I can see how there is not much to do in this city – there is no nightlife and not a lot of restaurants. In general, most of the people we see visiting are older couples.
Kinosaki is definitely more of a luxury/relax escape than the go-go business of usual Japan. After more than a week of walking everywhere and busy itineraries, this day was much appreciated. The hot springs were amazing because it cleared up our sinuses and my feet pain. Our bodies truly felt so relaxed and we had just the best meal ever.
Stay tuned for my next post and follow along with the other recaps!
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Sincerely, Loewe
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