First onsen and Kyoto 12/29/22
Our sleep was amazing. There’s something to be said about separate beds…Now for the fancy breakfast in the fancy hotel. We went back to the restaurant we had the forever dinner in since we opted for the Japanese breakfast of course. It was legit. They brought out large bento? boxes with little bits of food in each. All the food was savory, some pickled, very mild and yum. This breakfast ended at a reasonable time.
Time to leave the fabulous hotel and move on. First, onsen. After searching for “tattoo friendly onsens” we found one down the hill, plus some Google comments confirmed as well. We took the bus down half the mountain. The transfer stop was weird and we couldn’t figure it out, so to save time that we don’t have we took a taxi to the Tensen Onsen. We planned to meet after an hour since men and women are split. The onsen was deep in a valley so the outside pools were looking st the beautiful mountain side. There were a couple inside but who wants those when you can have cold air on your face and a lovely view? First was the thorough cleaning you must do because no one wants your dirty ass soaking in the same water. No bathing suits because who wants to be all restricted when you’re trying to relax? Relaxing it was, I almost fell sleep. We dried off and met each other about at the same time which is pretty good since there are no clocks. Perfection. There was a restaurant at the onsen and since it was already time for lunch we ate there. They gave us another table where you sit on the floor, but we were in our own room. Shoes off of course. We rang the bell anytime we needed the waitress to come by. Beers, a variety of meet skewers (tonkatsu), karange (fried chicken), and a big container of unagi. Yummmm.
We took the bus off the hill and jumped back on the Shinkansen. Yay! The people working at the JR station are so nice which is important because it’s not straight forward. We ended going back to a station near Tokyo to get the train to Kyoto. Interesting thing I noticed- when the train was pulling into the station, the woman who was there to clean bowed to the train until the train stopped. We didn’t make a reservation since we didn’t have large luggage. Unfortunately the train was packed. My guess it was people leaving the city since it was the Thursday before the New Years holiday. We stood the 2 hours to Kyoto, not ideal and not as much fun. I put my bag on the floor and sat on it. Not something that’s done in Japan. They don’t like anything touching the floor. There are slippers for when you take your shoes off everywhere, and baskets to put your jacket or bag in.
Made it to Kyoto. Took the train close to our hotel and walked a couple large ass blocks. It was evening by the time we arrived so it was dark. We checked in and headed out for dinner. We were near the Kyoto Palace walking around the side streets looking for lit lanterns to let us know these small restaurants were open. Every place open was full. We had no reservations. Our hotel was that nice so we didn’t want to eat there. Next to us though was a luxury hotel. We walked in and they said we could visit the Italian restaurant, no thanks, we still want Japanese food. The guy was going to find a restaurant for us until he asked for our room number. No, we aren’t staying here. OK you gotta go. Kicked to the street. Later I found that hotel was $1300/ night.
Right when we were about to go to 7-11 to eat, we stopping in one last place and they sat us! Soba was perfect- just what we wanted. Early to bed for another big day tomorrow.