Goshogake Hot Spring Hotel — Hotel in Kazuno

This is a stand-alone onsen, in the midst of mountains, just next to a geothermal area. When we were there at the 3rd week of november, it was snowing heavily. The thermometer hovered between minus 5 and minus 8 celsius. shivers. ||||Tip 1 - Please be PREPARED, you will be staying at a national park- hachimantal mountain. It's REALLY isolated and the nearest station, Kozuno Hanawa station where the pick-up van came ( parked outside the station - memorise the Chinese characters of the onsen to identify the correct van please) and drop-off is about half an hour away by car. Be prepared means many things - medication if you need, snacks, fruits etc (Fr Morioka station basement).||||Tip 2 - To come this far, most people stay for at least 2 days. Some regulars spend a week or even longer. ||||Tip 3 - So what do you do on the mountains ? Onsen, take walks, watch Japanese tv (no subtitles), meditate, play hp games. Note that in icy weather, the trails are closed ( november to... maybe April). ||||Tip 4 - this is a real onsen, with water sprouting out of the caldera and pumped into the ryokan so you do get good quality water. A genuine experience - make sure to try the steam boxes - sit inside the box and get out when it gets too hot. Also look for the mud boxes in the bath area and smear some on your face etc. This is a volcano onsen. You can't get more natural than this.||||Tip 5 - From Morioka, the local train took about 2 hours (!) on the IGT - Iwate Ginga Tetsudo, a PRIVATE train, - please note if you have JR pass, show the ticket officer when you purchase tickets and you only pay about 650yen one way per person (if not it costs 1950 yen one way) because part of the journey runs on JR track, or something like that. If you factor in coming from Tokyo ( tokyo station to morioka station is 2 hr 50 min on the shinkansen) or from shin -Aomori station ( one hour on shinkansen) , then local train then the pick up plus waiting for trains , you are looking at at least 5 hours of travel to get there. For my trip, I went from Tokyo , to Hirosaki, then to Oirase , then to Morioka before getting into Goshogake onsen but I can say, this place is the highlight for our entire trip of 8 hotel nights, beating the great hotel stay I had at Oirase stream just because we are onsen addicts. ||||Tip 6 - It's better to get a room plus dinner and breakfast plan because it's in the deep mountains. quite reasonably priced. The meals are quite sensible and enough. On a scale of 1 to 10, for a pretty fussy eater, I give it a 7.2.||||Tip 7 - The only problem I had was they don't have block out curtains so I had to put the towel rack close to my bed to shield from the light of the window. ||||Service is quite good and polite. Overall, a genuinely...

Our group of 7 pax stayed at this lovely hotel in Oct. I had made the reservations 6 months ago in April and I must say it exceeded my expectations of a great Japanese Ryokan. ||||The service staff was attentive and welcoming. Before our arrival, they even contact us to notify us of the road blockage and instructions on how to get there. When we got there, they were fast in settling us in. The rooms are clean and nicely made up. There was even a shoe rack reserved for us with my name on it at the hotel lobby. They thought of everything. From the little snacks & hot tea placed in our rooms, to the bedroom slippers and clothes pegs labelled with our room numbers.||||The dinner and breakfast provided with the room booking were also delicious and heartwarming. ||||We truly enjoyed their onsen where they had numerous treatment available like the steam boxes, pool with volcanic mud in addition to the usual onsen. ||||The valley behind the Ryokan is equally breathtaking. We enjoyed ourselves trekking and exploring the Oyunuma Pond and Odoro Volcano the next day after we checked in.||||I would highly recommend this place for anyone looking for a unique experience and would like to return to stay again to experience another season,...

The ryokan shuttle bus pick up from Kazuno Hanawa Station operates only in the winter season Nov-Apr. We staged our trip by staying a night in Yuze Onsen which was marvellous. From Yuze Onsen we took the JR Hanawa train to Kazuno Hanawa. As it was a weekday n outside the winter season, there’s no bus service up to Hatchimantai summit. From Kazuno Hanawawe took the Ugokotsu bus to the Aspite entrance from where we were picked up by the ryokan bus. (We had the Morioka Tourist office call ahead to reconfirm the ryokan bus pickup).|As we were too early to check in we took an interesting hour walk around the volcanic area next to the ryokan. |We had a western room which was large n clean with attached toilet but no bath.|The Onsen was the highlight. The water is acidic with ph at 3.1. But it leaves your skin smooth after bath. There’s a small indoor Onsen. The larger Onsen in the lower area has an indoor area comprising 3 baths, steam room, 3 steam boxes, running shower and a small outdoor bath. |Dinner and breakfast were adequate. There’s also a small cafe with a limited menu where u can have lunch or a snack.|From here we took a 10mins public bus (weekend service only outside winter season) to our next destination .....