Kinosaki at Kojin Mari

My Dad’s a bit of a hot-spring freak so, when he and mum came out to Japan for a visit, a trip up to Kinosaki, Hyogo’s famous onsen town, was in order. We stayed at the Kojin Mari Shimaya, a ryokan which is famed for being both the most personal and one of the best in Kinosaki. There are four guest rooms in the building and due to a slight misunderstanding we had the two best in the building, including a huge room on the third floor with an outdoor private bath looking onto the main street.

There are 7 famous bathhouses in Kinosaki and staying at a local inn gets you into all of them for free: plenty of opportunities to soak your face clean off. We made it to four of the seven, including the modern split-styled (one half is Turkish, the other Japanese) mega complex near the station, the river bath of Ichi-no-yu, the super traditional Mandara and the recently remodeled Gosho-no-yu which is styled after the imperial palace in Kyoto and was nothing short of astonishing. Sitting outside at dusk, submerged to your neck in hot water, and listening to the thunder of a series of waterfalls that rush down the mountain to merge at the base with the onsen, is a somewhat religious experience. Or at least my dad seemed to think so, as getting him out of there was a herculean effort.

Also included in the price of the room was astonishing dinner consisting of no less than 10 courses of seafood and local produce including tajima beef, baby squid, seafood barbeque, more beef and a huge plate of the freshest raw fish I’ve ever eaten. Not forgetting the Anin Dofu, the amazing selection of starters, the plum wine, the egg custards and god knows what else. It was arguably one of the best meals I’ve ever eaten.

Thankfully the weather was warm enough for stomping around in yukata robes and, while the cherry blossoms weren’t quite out, it was certainly better than last time I was up there when I had to eat soft serve ice-cream just to warm me up. If you’re at all a fan of soaking-until-you-peel I highly recommend Kinosaki. Sure, it’s no Beppu, but that’s why we love it.

Posted in Japan on Thursday April 6, 2006.