Tokamachi 十日町 (4 Nights)

30-mims car ride brought us to our first ryokan for the next 2 nights in the famous Matsunoyama onsen area.
Izumiya Ryokan is a family run onsen-ryokan for many years. Has 5 different private onsen.

Dinner highlights were carp sashimi, kiku flower salad, signature stew carp soup and the smoked slow cook pork slices.
I like the intensity of the signature carp soup, which went very well with rice like an ochazuke.
Traditional Japanese breakfast of rice, natto and salted grilled salmon, with local specialities of Niigata kinoko mushroom marinated with miso, sake lees, shoyu and salt. Everything needed rice as accompanying staple, so much for low-carb diet.

The rain cleared up a bit when we reach the forest. We were the only ones there, so better start playing your spotify playlist to ward off bears.
Breathing in the fresh forest ions, rambling through the forest floor looking for mushrooms and making swan poses at the forest pond.

Echigo-Tsumari region in Niigata Prefecture, is renowned for its expansive open-air museum called the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field. There are 100s, we only got to a few.

The weather has been playing with us for this trip. Rain for the last 24 hrs and predicted to continue raining. We went ahead with the plan to wake up at 5am, hoping that there will be a 10mins of sunrise to show us the postcard scene of the Hoshitouge paddy fields against the mountains.
Time to give up when all the folks with the big camera starts packing up, see you next time then.

A tunnel was built into the gorge and in subsequent years turned into a permanent art installation. Obviously it was a popular spot. You need to make sure you have prior reserved tickets, and have a lot of patience to try to get a clean photo.

Pre-dinner walk up the road to the onsen source just 5 mins from our ryokan.
The onsen water is a 12 million years old seawater, trapped under the earth gas and oil layers. Water was 98 degrees at source, did not have to search too hard to find where it was constantly blowing stream ...

The driver Yamato San initially recommended a ramen place but it was closed when we reach there. Got to another soba restaurant instead.
What was meant to be a small lunch turned out to be a huge plate of maitake tempura with boxes of hegi soba. One of the thickest and juiciest maitake we had. Was told that Hegi meant the soba served in the traditional square boxes.

Ok, I think we are officially Soba-ed out.

We had to shift to another ryokan for our 2nd part in matsunoyama onsen. The owner of the first ryokan rejected our 4 nights reservation. He was afraid he could not keep up expectation and we would be bored with the food for 4 nights.
Ryounkaku was as much bigger facility. The building exterior holds a lot of old japanese wooden architecture charm, which was my cup of tea. The building was like 150+ years old.
Service was top notch, but the interior badly need some maintenance.
Our rooms did not come with attached toilet, the corridor floors definitely show signs of its age. It creaks very loudly with every step. So when you need to go to the shared toilet at night, I am sure the entire floor knows ... LOL.
The onsen pool area was old, stained marble, relatively small pools and several broken tiles.

First time having soba with walnut and their blend of chilli sauce mixed into the dipping sauce. Followed by a chestnut for dessert.
When the guide explained that we were from Singapore ... the old lady owner was so surprised. She felt that her's a simple store for locals and never expected overseas visitors in her shop. She asked for permission to shake our hands, especially so with me, since it was untraditional for her as a woman to shake a man's hand. As we drove away, she stood at the driveway waving goodbye to us. So slow of me, only at this time I figured i missed asking for a photo with her.
Really miss these simple country-side warmth.

We really enjoyed how the hike turned out. Foraging the forest floor for mushroom and other mountain vegetable. Having tea under a power line on top of the hill with a scenic viewpoint.

Nice lunch spot, modern settings, organic ingredients from the back garden and the pork and beef bowls were good.

The hike today was cancelled. Wet weather plans was the Tokamachi City Museum TOPPAKU 十日町市博物館 and Sasadango making ....