Super early morning yesterday. To make the final bus to the Shiobara onsen town at 3pm we had to wake up at 4:30 and catch a taxi at 5:15 to make it to Sapporo station to catch the first train out of town at 6am. We arrived so early in fact that the station wasn’t even open yet.
While our train up to Sapporo had awesome sights of the mountains and the ocean on either side of the train. I felt a little disappointed that I didn’t get my train ride through the frozen tundra of northern Japan. Lucky for us that they got a good 3 inches of white powder overnight. With our train being the first to use the tracks in the morning, it was really cool to see the snow whip past the window as I watched the white snow covered trees pass by at +200 miles per hour.
4 trains later, we arrive at the very quiet Nasushiobara Station, quite a different vibe than what we’ve been accustomed to this trip. Joanna was elated that it was a “warm”40f with streets no longer covered in 6 inches of ice and snow. The bus driver confirmed that he was going to Shiobara Onsen terminal and we jumped on. The driver said a bunch of stuff in Japanese then ended with “wakaranai”. Not sure what he said, I could only reply with “gomenasai”.
My confidence in this leg of the trip was a little weak. Nobody was on the bus and we were driving through basically farmtown in the middle of nowhere Japan. After about half an hour, we started going up the mountain and wow, the scenery was something out of a painting. The trees on the towering foggy mountain were lightly dusted with snow and a river wound around while we slowly drove on the single lane narrow road.
The bus ride lasted about an hour and we found the Shimofujia Ryokan bus driver waiting for us to arrive. While on the ride to the ryokan the driver said a bunch of stuff and then ended with “wakaranai”, just like the bus driver did. Neither of us knew what he was saying so we nervously laughed and just said “gomenasai”.
We arrived after 15 min in the car, the ryokan staff warmly welcomed us and had hot matcha tea and sweetened colored beans for us in the lobby which was beautifully decorated and homey feeling.
The nakai-san introduced herself as the person that will be taking care of us during our stay and brought us up to our room on the 3rd floor. I really wish I could communicate better with Japanese, all the staff we interacted with spoke almost no English whatsoever, but we managed just fine…I think. The nakai-san helped us with our yukatas and explained that dinner will be served in the room in an hour and we were invited to use the onsen before then. Having the onsen actually in the same building as where we were staying was really nice, at the last ryokan we needed to book a shuttle to take us to the public one.
The water here was slightly grey and smelled faintly of sulfur but once your body acclimated to the 155f degree water, it felt so relaxing and comfortable.
Back in our room, the nakai-san knocked on our door and let herself in with a tray of food that was beautifully arranged. This was a 10 course meal that was delicately prepared and tasted so good we couldn’t help but whisper throughout the meal to maintain the peaceful experience.
She presented the first few dishes and I think she remembered that we didn’t speak Japanese halfway through because the dialogue slowed and again I hear “Wakaranai”. I pulled it up on my phone and looked up the translation: Wakaranai means ‘don’t understand’ sheesh…
At the end of dinner, I tried preparing myself a cup of tea and the nakai-san laughed and said “no” and showed me how to do it properly.
Once they took the empty plates away, the guy that brought our bags up from the lobby came in to prepare the beds. He pulled out the futons from the sliding door closet and was super meticulous about removing the wrinkles.
Once he was done, the phone in the room rang. It was the front desk letting me know that the outdoor onsen was ready where they escorted us to a separate building outside.
Just like the first night, soaking in the hot onsen while it snowed lightly felt like something out of a movie.
I’m really glad we were able to stay at this ryokan. The food, service, and landscape all combined together to make it a really special stay.
