Jumping back from Kanazawa to complete the next few segments of Kurokawa onsen. I'm breaking Kurokawa onsen up into a few parts because while research on Kurokawa, I realised there's really very limited information online about it, so I guess to help friends and family + other people ( ya i'm friendly and helpful like a care bear) I'm going to try and do the Kurokawa post as detailed as possible.
You may read
part 1 here ( click ) - part one was describing how to get from Fukuoka to Kurokawa and our lunch recommendation )
After our satisfying meal at Ufufu うふふ , we decided it was time to properly check in into our Ryokan for the night - Ikoi Ryokan and get our onsen soaking sessions started :D
This post shall be dedicated to the 4 ( Ikoi Ryokan where we stayed + 3 others ) onsens we visited. There will not be able food recommendations in this post.
To get started with onsen hopping or as the locals call it " Rotenburo Meguri", you need to purchase a wooden onsen hopping pass ( nyuto tegata).
We got ours from the tourist information, but you are able to buy this pass from any of the 24 participating onsens.
It lets you try 3 different outboor baths ( rotenburo) for 1300yen. Just pop it around your neck and present it each time you visit a different bath and i can be stamped. It is valid up to 6 months.
We are all good to go with our pass and our pass around our neck!
This pass can be kept as a souvenir, however some people have chosen to hand our completed passes just outside a ?shrine
We also got a onsen hopping map from the tourist information centre, its really informative because it tells you who are the participating onsens, where they are located and what healing properties their water has.
There's another page with writeups of most of the onsen and detailing what their water healing properties are as well as bathing etiquettes. But I think I didn't take a picture of it oops - to look at them online,
click here
So we start our first soak of the day - Back at the ryokan we are staying at Ikoi Ryokan
1) Ikoi Ryokan
Ikoi Ryokan has 11 baths in total with 1 bath only for stayed in guests. There's a particular bath which they call bijinyu ( beauty bath)... So I guess.. that's their selling point?
I super enjoyed onsen soaking here because the water temperature was just right for me and I could just retreat back into our room after soaking. Perfect.
Second ryokan we went for onsen soaking ....
2) Yamabiko Ryokan
It has the largest outdoor bath in Kurokawa and is conveniently situation along the riverside
It's exceptionally pretty if you go to Yamabiko after 6pm in winter, that's when the illumination of the river starts. And Yamabiko essentially monopolised the whole river bridge haha.
Third Ryokan we went to was
3) Ryokan Wakaba
Pleasant secluded outdoor bath set above the river, indoor bath is also available. I thought the temperature of the water for this was warmer than the previous 2. I would have been cooked if I spent 100% of my soaking time in the indoor area. Outdoor bath temperature was hot, but bearable.
4) Yamanoyado Shinmeikan
Shinmeikan is located very centrally along the riverside as well. What I enjoyed about this onsen was that it is set inside a dark and steamy cave, very unusual! A great experience!
I'll be honest, some of these onsens were not our first choice, I won't tell you which, because all of them turned out to be a great experience.
The reason why we were not able to soak at some of our first choices is because they were closed for the day. We made a huge mistake by not studying the kurokawa onsen website well enough. The website actually tells you which onsens are closed for the day -
click here to be redirected
It is REALLY very helpful and useful if you check this website before you set out, because Nick and I wasted ALOT of time getting to onsens just to realise they were closed for the day. And some of these onsens we wanted to visit is not like one straight road, it's like... A HIKE.
Can you imagine me doing a hike? wtf, I thought I almost lost my life there.
I'm the girl who attempted to do Mount lofty in Adelaide ( people take maybe 2hours max for round trip), it took me 4 hours round trip BUT JUST HALFWAY MOUNT LOFTY. wtf. Yup I'm that unfit okay hahahaha.
The ones that we also wanted to check out were
Iyashinosato Kiyashiki. Also known as the place of healing.
We were initially booked to stay here, thankfully we changed to Ikoi last minute because this ryokan is so far from the city centre !
So far from the city centre they have to hang their radish to make their own pickles because it's too far to buy.
Okay kidding, but yeah.. idk.. maybe there's some element of truth
Just see how secluded this ryokan is wtf. ITS A HIKE.
We also wanted to check out Ryokan Konoyu which is near Iromomoji because we wanted to have soba at iromomoji.
Iromomoji is here but they are closed too.
I've purposely posted a map so that you can see we actually walked all the way from Centre ( Ikoi ryokan) to Iyashinosato ( East) just to find it closed, then walked from Iyashinosato to Ryokan Konoyu ( West) to also find it closed.
WTF. That's like a week's worth of exercise for me.
So there you go, checking the website is very important if you are as unfit as me :D
ADDIT
KUROKAWA Onsen 黒川温泉: A guide to onsen hopping and food part 4
