With the versatility of our JR pass we opted to spend a
night in the small town of Kinosaki. There is but only one thing this very
small town is known for: onsens. An onsen is a Japanese hot springs. For those
Nor Cal folks, think of Calistoga. This town has seven public onsens and if you stay
with certain ryokans in town you get a pass that allows you into all of them. So
that is what we did, we booked a beautiful ryokan, checked in, changed into our
yukatas, and headed out.
Walking up and down the street from onsen to onsen are
couples and small groups all dressed in the yukata from their respective inns and walking in their geta (traditional wooden sandals) making clacking noises on the cobble
stone street.
We also once again got to see cherry blossoms lining the
street and waterway, lit up at night by hanging lanterns.
All in all this was one of the most relaxing times of our
trip, flowing from onsen to onsen drinking beer and plum wine while munching on
warm crab-stuffed steamed pastry buns. Highly recommended.
I've had a variety of native Japanese roommates and tenants and I noticed that many of them had very heavy footfalls and I always wondered why?
ReplyDeleteUpon visiting Japan I expected to always have to change my footware from outside shoes to sandals upon entering any establishment. At first I tried hard to always find sandals that fit amongst the usual collection that greeted me at any door but it wasn't long before I just grabbed any pair that looked serviceable. I found that to walk around in ill fitting sandals one has to shuffle, and thus - heavy footfalls.