Shibu Onsen

Despite that, or perhaps because, it was a cold wet, slushy miserable kind of day, Shibu Onsen came to me to epitomise all that is romantically Japanese. If you ever read Kawabata's Snow Country, then this is almost exactly what the first chapter feels like; arriving after a long cold journey by train and being welcomed in to a quintessentially Japanese onsen experience. At the Kokuya Ryokan I was expected and awaited so no introductions or stupid hotel check in necessary. I was simply led up to my tatami floored room and seated at my kotatsu whilst the delights of the hotel were described to me and I was plied with hot green tea. After several hot baths and a meal I will never forget, I wandered out onto the streets as the drizzle fell upon me and the other yukata clad citizens of the spa town, all enjoying the fresh cool evening air before returning to yet more baths. It reminded me of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy where the captain of the pioneer vessel spends the duration of the journey indulging in the world's longest bath. But then, in a town where even wild monkeys are entitled to an outdoor hot bath, it seems only right that the humans should get their fair share too.