Koganezaki Furofushi Onsen — Hotel in Fukaura

Good size onsen with several options for soaking in the cloudy, soothing waters of a natural hot spring. The rotemburo, or natural bath, is outside, where you can watch the sun going down over the sea, while you relax in the mineral waters of the hot spring, which is located among rocks just feet from the sea. It is an experience that you will remember for a long time. There are two separate baths, one for women, and the other is mixed man and women. My wife and I chose the mixed side, and there were at least 2 other couples there during the time we were there. People were modest going in and out, and it was great being in the natural hot spring with my wife, close to a roiling ocean. ||||There are other baths inside, one in the main wing, and the other in the new wing. These are in the more traditional configuration one bath for men and the other for women. Both look out on the ocean, but are inside. The men’s side becomes the women’s side after a break for cleaning during each day. This strange practice is because the view from one is much better than the other, so in the interest of being fair, this rotation occurs every day. Pay attentions to the sign, so you don’t go into the wrong locker room.||||Our room was a typical Japanese style tatami room with futons for sleeping, with the typical layout. These were more modern futons with some sort of foam with air inside – very comfortable if you are used to sleeping on a somewhat harder surface. If not, then a Japanese style room may not be comfortable for you. Toilet in a separate small room off the small entry foyer, and no bath tub or shower, since you wash up in the locker/dressing room before going into the hot spring bath used by everyone. Our room faced the Sea of Japan, which was really nice. The sounds of the surf gently carried us off to sleep.||||We opted for breakfast and dinner. The breakfast was buffet style with many western and Japanese dishes. Dinner was well-prepared and presented, with many fish and vegetable dishes. It did not look like a lot of food, but we were quite filled when it was over. A small scoop of carrot ice cream, which is made locally from the area’s famous carrots, was a fitting end to the first of two very good dinners.||||If you are expecting an experience on the level of top-rated onsen in Ise or Hakone, Furofushi may disappoint you in some aspects. Our understanding is that Furofushi was started to serve the local population, and although some of that atmosphere still can be felt, you are paying much less than top-rated places. With these expectations, we thoroughly...

Good size onsen with several options for soaking in the cloudy, soothing waters of a natural hot spring. The rotemburo, or natural bath, is outside, where you can watch the sun going down over the sea, while you relax in the mineral waters of the hot spring, which is located among rocks just feet from the sea. It is an experience that you will remember for a long time. There are two separate baths, one for women, and the other is mixed man and women. My wife and I chose the mixed side, and there were at least 2 other couples there during the time we were there. People were modest going in and out, and it was great being in the natural hot spring with my wife, close to a roiling ocean. ||||There are other baths inside, one in the main wing, and the other in the new wing. These are in the more traditional configuration one bath for men and the other for women. Both look out on the ocean, but are inside. The men’s side becomes the women’s side after a break for cleaning during each day. This strange practice is because the view from one is much better than the other, so in the interest of being fair, this rotation occurs every day. Pay attentions to the sign, so you don’t go into the wrong locker room.||||Our room was a typical Japanese style tatami room with futons for sleeping, with the typical layout. These were more modern futons with some sort of foam with air inside – very comfortable if you are used to sleeping on a somewhat harder surface. If not, then a Japanese style room may not be comfortable for you. Toilet in a separate small room off the small entry foyer, and no bath tub or shower, since you wash up in the locker/dressing room before going into the hot spring bath used by everyone. Our room faced the Sea of Japan, which was really nice. The sounds of the surf gently carried us off to sleep.||||We opted for breakfast and dinner. The breakfast was buffet style with many western and Japanese dishes. Dinner was well-prepared and presented, with many fish and vegetable dishes. It did not look like a lot of food, but we were quite filled when it was over. A small scoop of carrot ice cream, which is made locally from the area’s famous carrots, was a fitting end to the first of two very good dinners.||||If you are expecting an experience on the level of top-rated onsen in Ise or Hakone, Furofushi may disappoint you in some aspects. Our understanding is that Furofushi was started to serve the local population, and although some of that atmosphere still can be felt, you are paying much less than top-rated places. With these expectations, we thoroughly...

This is an older Hot Spring Onsen resort located some distance from the Wes Spa Tsubakiyama station on the Gonou train line which is most scenic.||||Frankly my wife and I were quite disappointed. The facility itself is old, which in an of itself is not sin, but it shows it and is poorly maintained. The room was large and adequate for the price of about 15,000 yen per person. The public bath is large and the water is pleasantly hot. However, I tried two separate locations for washing prior to entering the bath and at neither of them could I get a consistent temperature of the water. It ranged from unheated to near scalding, so I wound up filling the bath basin with hot water and then diluting it with cold water to a usable temperature.||||The featured out door bath also features a warning about some sort of biting insect which is supposed to be very nasty. Our breakfast companions did use this bath and told us that they did observe some of these insects but were not bitten. ||||The dinner meal was served in the main dining room, the food was almost overwhelming in quantity, the quality frankly was underwhelming. There were two chafing dishes both of which were lit by the waitress when we were first seated. All well and good, but by the time we had finished the other preliminary dishes the alcohol hearer under the chafing dishes had long since gone out and the contents were luke warm to cold. Dessert was a scoop of apple flavored ice cream which we had to flag a waitress down to serve, it was frozen rock hard and took a good 10 minutes to thaw sufficiently that it could be eaten.||||Breakfast was served in the same room and while a bit better was certainly not up to the standards that we expect in a ryokan. The establishment seems to cater to pre-arranged bus tours mostly from Tokyo, and or the tohoku area of Japan.||||Frankly a most disappointing experience.||||As a side note we took a taxi to and from Aoike-ko (Blue Lake) which is located in a quasi-national park some distance from the hotel/inn. It was excellent and most unlike anything I have seen before in Japan. My recommendation would be to stay in Juniko which is near to the lake if at all possible and take either a bus or taxi from there as it is a considerable hike. Our taxi driver was most accommodating, as befits the 15000 taxi fare from the hotel, he knew the area well and described it to my wife who is a native Japanese speaker. I believe it is the Iwasaki Taxi Company. After returning from this side trip we did some walking along the cliffs above the coast which is...