[Page 3] 13 Jan 2011 - Soaking in the old town and famous baths of Shibu Onsen 渋温泉
13 Jan 2011 - Exploring Shibu Onsen Town 渋温泉 and Heiwan Kannon 世界平和大観音From Shiga Kogen, the local bus takes about 20 mins to reach Shibu Onsen
Alighting at 和合橋 wago-bashi bus stop, its a 10 mins walk to the ryokan. We were navigating the back street, got lost a bit as there were a lot of small lanes, would probably have been faster if we took the main streets.
いかり屋旅館 Ikariya Ryokan
〒381-0401
長野県下高井郡山ノ内町渋温泉
Phone Number :0269-33-3168
Ikariya is a 100 years old ryokan handled down 3 generations. A small family run establishment (you can tell I don't pick big chain hotels if I can help it ). We were way early but were showed to our rooms on the 3rd floor. Noticed on our way out that they posted our names on the front to welcome us.
The lady who showed us our room don't speak English. She was like a busy bee buzzing quickly between places, kept on explaining to us in japanese, quickly scaling all the narrow stairways and waiting for us to catch up. She is probably much older but definitely fitter than us.
After getting through the orientation of the place. It's time for green tea and the welcome snack 温泉まんじゅうOnsen Manjuu while snugging under the blanket of the heated table. Yummy soft buns filled with red beans, probably steamed with the local onsen waters. Obviously no one wanted to get out from the blanket.
Shibu had 9 public onsens. Water in each onsen has different properties and known to cure different types of health issues.
You can use these onsens only if you stay in one of the ryokan in the town itself. Not sure why but they made the key tag really huge .... no excuse for losing it I guess. The key comes with a map of the location of the 9 public baths. The same key opens all doors to the 9 baths (male and female).
世界平和大観音 Heiwan Kannon
About 20 mins walk from the town center ... passing by frozen apple orchards, great view of the snow covered town, pussy willow trees ...
We paid the ¥200 entry to the temple and found out that it came with a guided tour (of course in japanese)
- the "peace light" which was a kerosine lamp with had been lit continuous since 1945 (i think)
- beating a big drum ONCE, which chases away bad luck and evil
- viewing a collection of replicas of the 33 kannons from temples in 西国.
- veiwing a large stone buddha statue enshrined in a tunnel beneath the Kannon statue
More climbing to another little shrine with a stone buddha
Time to head back to the ryokan as days are short during winter
Changing to our yukata (doubled layer) and geta (wooden clogs), we braved the cold to the first public bath.
Public bath No 1- 初湯 which could cure stomach and intestine problems
The water in the bath was so hot that we could not get it. Needs to turn on the cold tap there for a good 10 mins before it became bearable.
Dinner time ... Teppanyaki pork, tempura, sashimi ... etc
The ryokan owner had a collection of ginseng soaked in shoju. After a limited conversation, he was very generous to let us taste his 20years old bottle. The aroma was just fantastic ... it was so full bodied that it it almost felt like chewing on the ginseng root itself. What a nice thing to have on a cold winter night before sleeping
14 Jan 2011 - Jidokudani Monkey Park
Not sure why the snow monkey shuttle bus did not operate that day. We took a local bus to Kanbayahi Onsen and treked in from the bus stop to the park enterance. In total, it was probably about a 2.5km trek in the snowy and icy path.
Passing by the "roman" museum and one of the shrines.
The long walk in ....
Passing by the hot spring geyser just before the last stretch to the park office ...
Story has it that back then, one of the snow monkey had a bath in the hot spring in the ryokan there. More of them kept coming back and this affect the owner's business. As a result, they built an onsen pool for use by the monkey. It seems to have worked and the monkeys kept coming to their own pool.
The monkey are not shy and this provided very good close up photo opportunities. They had such nice fur and are so full of expression.
I spend more than an hour photographing and observing them ... well worth the trek in.
For the return trip, I decided to take a different route which would bring us directly to Shibu Onsen via a motorcar road which was closed during winter. Anyway both ways looks equally far and this would save us having to take another bus after the long trek.
It was a much better route as it was mostly downhill and we had to quicken the pace as most restuarant closes at 2pm for lunch.
Lunch at 幸鮨 Kouzushi (near shibu onsen bus-stop) which was another 100 year old family business.
They made us hot fish soup while waiting for the sushi and also gave us strawberries for dessert.
Sushi was very fresh and the servings were very generous.
After lunch ... time for some serious bathing. We managed only 3 public baths today ... before we run out of time and had to go back to the ryokan for dinner.
Bath No 2 - Cures Eczema
Bath No 3 - Cures Cuts, Scars and Skin disease
Bath No 9 - Cures all disease
Dinner time again ... its hotpot chicken and the handmade siew mai was fantastic !
Trying out their local brew ... from Shiga Kogen. Quite good especially the porter brew.
It was snowing heavily today, we did a quick tour of the Onsen temple.
As it was too cold for Dad and Mum to stay outdoors, they went back to the ryokan to rest. Sock and I walked up another slope to visit the Tamamura Sake Shop for some tasting of the local brew :>
After lunch, it was a quest to finish all the rest of the bath. We changed up to our yukata, got out in the snow with an umbrella in hand to go bathing !!!
Bath No 4 - Cures chornic gout
Bath No 5 - Cures Neuralgia
Bath No 6 - Cures eyes and soften skin
Bath No 7 - Cures injuries
Bath No 8 - Cures organic disease
It was dark by the time we completed the last bath and had to climb the steep ice covered steps to get the final stamp ... in our yukata and geta ... extremely challenging
After dinner, the ryokan owner brought us to a "fire festival".
Never thought that we would have a chance to attend a local festival. The town would bring their previous year's daruma to burn as it has already fulfilled their wishes. It was like a local party, where they served free sake and fish snacks, gave out free oranges and yakult. Kids were jumping in and out of the snow piles, folks were bbq their mochi (rice cakes) by the fire .... etc
After breakfast, we took a taxi to Yudanaka train station to make our way to Ikaho Onsen.
As a parting gift, the ryokan gave us chopstick with our chinese animal sign as symbolization of long life and good luck.
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