Ryokans around Nagano and Kawaguchi
Kamikochi in the Japanese Alps – Nagano, Japan
The lowdown
We had been excited to come back to Japan ever since we left Tokyo in 2019. So much so that Jessie tried to do 6 month transfer to the Bain office in Tokyo (COVID foiled those plans). One of the experiences we were most looking forward to was staying in traditional Japanese inns, known as ryokans. These inns are known for their onsen (natural hot springs), hospitality, and amazing kaiseki-style, Michelin star worthy meals. The rooms are simple with tatami mats and futons and guests wear their yukatas (traditional robes) around the property. Ryokans aren’t only a place to stay, but a cultural experience.
Before meeting up with the elder Smarts in Tokyo, we decided to spend six days hopping around to three different ryokans in beautiful locations around Nagano and Kawaguchi. We spent our first three days in the Japanese Alps in Matsumoto and Kamikochi and the last three days in Kawaguchi, hoping to catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji.
Day 1: The homiest stay at Fukashiso
Getting to the Japanese Alps from Fukuoka wasn’t a walk in the park. We had to break up the trip into two days to make it work and even then they were decently long travel days. After spending the night in Osaka, we fueled up on Family Mart udon and katsu for lunch and headed to Shin-Osaka to take the Shinkansen to Nagoya, followed by the JR to Matsumoto. The train moved so fast (200 km / hour) that it made Jessie a little nauseous.
The trip from Nagoya to Matsumoto was gorgeous. The landscape changed rapidly with the river emerging first, followed by rice paddies, and finally the alps filling in the background. When we arrived in the quiet, picturesque town of Matsumoto, we followed the river for 40 minutes to get to our first ryokan, Fukashisho. “Schreier” (Jessie’s booking.com username, that we use for 95% of our accommodations, is still Schreier) stuck out amongst the sea of Japanese last names outside of the ryokan, letting us know that we were in the right place.
We were greeted warmly by an older Japanese man and a younger woman at the ryokan, neither of whom spoke English. They motioned for us to take our shoes off and choose a pair of slippers for our stay. We mustered through a few questions in Japanglish – timing for dinner, timing for breakfast, and if we needed a shuttle tomorrow.
The older man showed us to our room, pointing out the men’s, women’s, and family onsen along the way. Our room was magical. It was large with tatami mats and traditional Japanese decor including a small table with a box full of supplies for green tea, two futons, and a dresser where our yukatas and kimonos were waiting for us. We slipped on our yukatas, careful to put the left side over the right (we learned the only real faux pas in a ryokan was putting the right side over the left which is reserved for the deceased), and walked down stairs to have our first onsen experience. It felt like a cross between a bath, a hot tub, and a hot spring, taking the best elements of each.
After relaxing in the onsen, it was time for dinner. Outfitted in our yukatas (Jessie’s dream way to go to dinner), we were escorted to a traditional dining room with one older Japanese couple. Doug and I were seated diagonally from each other, figuring that it must be a Japanese cultural norm, and happily took in our surroundings. Like our room, the dining room was covered in tatami mats and was full of beautiful but understated Japanese decor. Instrumental music of familiar songs was playing on a CD player.
Our appetizers were waiting for us in multi-tiered boxes, a presentation that we would have expected at a Michelin starred restaurant and definitely not a small family inn. We savored the fresh prawns, vegetables, and green wasabi tofu, washing them down with hot sake. What followed was one of the most delicious meals we’ve had in our lives, let alone on our trip. Salmon and yellowtail sashimi that melted in our mouths with the freshest wasabi, egg custard that tasted like savory creme brûlée, hot pots with multi-year aged miso, full skewered trout, lotus root with vegetables, the best shrimp and vegetable tempura we’ve ever had, soba noodles dipped into a savory sauce, even better soba water, and a rich, smooth cheesecake with fresh jam for desert. Too delicious for words!
We said very few words to each other between bites, both in disbelief at how delicious and beautiful each course was. The owner of the ryokan, an adorable 70 or 80 something woman in a gorgeous kimono, came over to thank us for staying at her place. She didn’t speak any English, but we understood and tried to express our gratitude with broken “arigatto gozimas” and bows.
So full, but so happy, we hauled ourselves up the stairs and settled into our futons for the evening. Though we had slept in plenty of places that were far less comfortable, the futons did take some getting used to. As did the pillows. They were traditional Japanese pillows that felt like a sack of rocks (turns out buckwheat husks aren’t very comfortable).
Day 2: A castle and some art in Matsumoto
Though the paper on the windows felt very zen, it didn’t do much to block out the morning light. Still full from dinner, we dragged ourselves down to breakfast. Thankfully, it was a buffet with small Japanese plates like miso, fish, curry, and pickles. We didn’t overeat. After breakfast, we went to the family onsen for one last time and promised each other we would come back to this place. As if our stay couldn’t get any better, we were given two little handmade pouches with Japanese prints on our way out by the adorable owner who followed us to the car to bid us farewell. The zipper on the free Turkish Airways toiletry bag that we had been using as our wallet for nearly 8 months was busted, so we happily adopted one of our gifts as our new wallet.
After getting dropped off, we grabbed a locker at the train station, shoved our bags in, and made our way to the Matsumoto Castle. It was the first and only castle we saw during our time in Japan. While the castle’s architecture and surroundings were gorgeous, we didn’t feel overwhelmed by its history. It was built in the early 1500s to protect a clan (Japanese family), designed specifically for musket and cannon warfare, seized mid-century, and reassigned a few more times throughout the next few centuries. The interior was simple and wooden, complete with six floors of very hazardous steps that we luckily didn’t stumble down.
We walked to the Matsumoto Art Museum where we saw two main exhibits. The first one was a special exhibit on the Arts and Crafts Movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century in England and the US. We had never heard of the Arts and Crafts Movement and enjoyed learning about the trend away from mass consumerism and toward art in everyday items like wallpaper, tapestries, and furniture. The second exhibit, and our favorite, was Yayoi Kusama’s the Place for My Soul, a tribute to Matsumoto where she was raised. Kusama is a very eccentric, 92 year-old powerhouse who has been making art for 70 years. She is most known for her dotted pumpkins and infinity mirrors, both of which have been featured in exhibits all around the world. She’s now one of our favorite artists!
Before catching the shuttle to our next ryokan, we grabbed lunch at two different spots around town. We started at a bento place with no menu. We had one “lunch” which was an old school bento box with fish, crispy chicken, sautéed vegetables, and delicious rice. Next, we walked to old reliable, Family Mart, to get supplemental food for Jessie. We had two onigiri, including our first inari – a tofu skin-wrapped onigri with wasabi rice – that we’ll try to recreate when we get home.
We took the ryokan shuttle up into the Japanese Alps. It was a beautiful, but very hot drive as the van wasn’t air conditioned. The ryokan was nestled into the mountains up a steep road full of switchbacks with no other buildings in sight. We settled into the ryokan routine, changing into our yukatas, checking out the private onsen, and eventually heading down to dinner. The dinner spread was similar to the previous night, but not as delicious or intimate (which isn’t saying much as dinner the night before was one of the best meals of our lives). The spread was still amazing – salmon sashimi, soba, full fish on the stick, etc. We settled into our futons for the night, full and in disbelief at the Japanese ryokan life. Maybe we should retire in Japan…
Day 3: Hiking in Kamikochi
Our breakfast was even more opulent and delicious than dinner the evening before. We tried at least 10 different tiny plates, including tamago, salmon, pickled veggies, a warhead-level tart cherry, aged miso with rice, and miso soup. Stuffed to the gills, we boarded the shuttle to Kamikochi, ready to hike our feast off. As we pulled into the national park, the alps and the Azusa River began to emerge. The views were spectacular and so unlike the other parts of Japan we had seen.
We spent the day hiking around and marveling at the postcard views of the Japanese Alps. Rather than saying “hi”, hikers said a friendly “konichiwa” as they passed each other, and we followed suit. The sounds were as lovely as the views – rushing water, chirping birds, and the near silence of the forest. We added Kamikochi to our rolodex of places to mentally transport to when we inevitably get stressed in life when we snap back to reality. We had a good laugh about the little history we learned, namely that the alps were formed between 0.8-2.6 million years ago from a volcanic eruption. Not a very precise estimate…
For lunch, we opted for one of the cafes that lined the entrance to the park. Doug had a delicious Japanese curry, while Jessie made the grave mistake of ordering the tomato curry udon that tasted like spaghetti-os. A rare disappointing meal in Japan, but there’s a first for everything! To ease the pain of a mediocre lunch and an expensive ticket to get back to our ryokan, we split a milk and cheese soft serve cone. No doubt, it sounded weird, but it tasted delicious.
Back at the ryokan, we unwinded from our day of hiking in the private onsen, read Kafka by the Shore, and relaxed until it was time for dinner. Our dinner was markedly better than the night before. We feasted on buttery amberjack sashimi, sesame tofu, custard with scallops, shabu shabu with delicious fish and vegetables, and a red bean and matcha dessert. Our stomachs and appetites were potentially getting too used to the ryokan way of eating…
Day 4: Fuji in Kawaguchi
After one last breakfast spread and onsen, our time at ryokan number two was up. We sat in the lobby until the van to Matsumoto was ready. On the way to Matsumoto station, we had a great conversation about the most pressing issues in the Netherlands with two Dutchmen. It was refreshing to talk about another country’s issues, but equally as depressing to hear that the most pressing national debate revolved around curbing nitrogen emissions. Not because the issue at hand was sad, but because we wished the US national debate could be around something as smart.
We had some time before our train to Kofu, so we decided to have a sit-down lunch at a soba shop right next to the station – Kurekino Soba Shop. It turned out to be one of the best meals we had in Japan. Doug ordered Karumisoba, cold dipping noodles with a nutty sauce, while Jessie had kakesoba with a hot dashi broth. The noodles were more than enough food, but we decided to split an order of tempura anyway.
Fueled up, we got ready for another travel afternoon. We took the hour train ride to Kofu, followed by a quick metro ride, and then a lengthy bus ride to our final destination. The bus was packed with school kids headed home. They were all glued to their phones playing video games or reading manga. We figured that they would get off sooner rather than later so we could sit down, but we were wrong. We stood for the entire stop-and-go bus ride, frequently pushing against the poles and people near us as the bus rounded windy curves and climbed up in altitude. We were very excited when we finally arrived at Kawaguchiko Station!
We were meant to be picked up at the station, but our ryokan transportation was nowhere in sight. Doug used a mix of travel smarts and luck to call the ryokan from a pay phone (!) in the train station. Our last ryokan was the nicest, but also the most commercial. Our room was spacious with a bathroom that had a shower (our first in-house shower since living the ryokan life), a long table where we would have our dinners, and a small table overlooking the lake.
We picked this ryokan in hopes that we would get a view of the larger-than-life Mt. Fuji. Much to our dismay, the forecast for our three days in Kawaguchi was rain, clouds, and more rain. We decided to give the observation deck a shot anyway. As we were walking up, we both affirmed that we couldn’t see Mt. Fuji. But, when we got to the top of the stairs, we could see it! The clouds parted for a short instant, revealing the majestic Fuji. It turned out to be our only view of Fuji for the entire three days, but we were so grateful to even get a glimpse of it that we didn’t care.
Another fun part of our last ryokan was dinner. Instead of going down to a private room or restaurant, we were served our kaiseki feasts in our room. We made friends with Miko, the kind, kimono-clad woman who came to our room to set up dinner every night. The highlights of our first in-room dinner were sashimi, miso soup served from a teapot, and a matcha cake dessert. After dinner, a man came into our room to set up our futons. The pillows were much more comfortable than the previous few nights, leading to a much better sleep!
Days 5-6: No Fuji in Kawaguchi
Our last two days of ryokan life were just as spectacular as the first four. We had two delicious, excessive meals a day, spent hours in the onsen and read. We were gearing up for a busy few weeks with the elder Smarts, so spent the last two days in Kawaguchi relaxing, playing too many games of Yahtzee, and excitedly preparing for our visitors.
The onsen at Wasakusa no Yado was the best that we had been in. There was an outdoor onsen that rotated between being only women and only men with a picture perfect view of Fuji. Unfortunately, the volcano was hidden in the clouds our entire stay, but the onsen was still beautiful and relaxing.
We absolutely loved our experience of staying in ryokans in Japan. These few days reenergized us for our next stretch of traveling, enabled us to experience true Japanese hospitality, and provided some of the most delicious meals on our travels.
