I woke up from my nap feeling totally refreshed and ready for dinner. I decided to head back to the same place that I had had lunch at.
As much as I wanted to have another negi tonkatsu I restrained myself and went for the healthy option (?) of miso ramen.
Beautiful, dark, rich, thick miso ramen that was perfect on a cold winter's night!
Finishing up, I went back to the ryokan and grabbed my other camera and set off for a walk around the town after dark. I always find walking around places at night very interesting. You get to see a completely different side of things at night. Take Tokyo for example. At night time, the city doesn't sleep. The day people sleep but the night people are out and about and doing their thing, the city almost as busy as it is during the day, but different things are happening. Shima onsen, on the other hand, was simply peaceful and quiet. It was so silent that you could hear the snowflakes landing.
I almost felt guilty having all of this to myself to enjoy.........almost.........
With a smile on my face and a skip in my step, I headed back to the Ryokan for yet another soak and then bed.
I woke up to yet another breakfast of champions (I love these Japanese breakfasts when I'm travelling).
Having a few hours to kill until the bus back to Tokyo (yes, the bus. I wasn't taking any risks this time!!) I decided to head over to the old ryokan that I had taken photos of in part 2 and have one last soak in their onsen. It was old and beautiful and almost Roman in it's decor, at least on the inside it was.
On the outside it was all Japanese!!
Finally, unfortunately, it was time to say goodbye (in the words of the great Andrea Bocelli). Hauling my waterlogged, but totally relaxed, butt onto the bus I lasted about 10 minutes before sleep took over. Well, it was a relaxation weekend after all......
Well, that's it for this post and this series of posts about Shima Onsen. I hope you enjoyed it, I certainly enjoyed being there. Please leave a comment below and sign up to receive email notifications when I upload a post and please share the blog with someone you know who would enjoy it.
Until next time, bye.
Costs.
- train ride from Shinjuku to Nakanojo - 2,590 yen plus 980 yen for the Green Car seat
- bus from Nakanojo station to Shima Onsen - 940 yen
- Ayameya Ryokan - 9,000 yen per night (including breakfast)
- bus from Shima Onsen to Tokyo station - 3,100 yen.
Hello Jason,I reckon lazing around in an Onsen with snow outside and nice traditional Ryokan in the old part of town,enjoying bowls of ramen/soup etc,being served by a delightful women in a kimono, would do most people the well of good.Maybe, some of the Bomber players could do with a bit of this...so many opinions are flying around about their lack lustre performances..including Matty Lloyd.The general opinion is that their squad is not as good as they hoped it would be.Went to Kodomo no Hi last Sunday at the Thebarton Community Centre,put on by JAFA.The tenki was fine and as soon as the gates opened,the car park on the oval,behind the Thebby Oval quickly filled.There was plenty of food and drink and the 2 Okonomiyaki stalls had line ups so long, it would have taken half an hour at least to get a feed...so I had Takoyaki and only had to wait a short time.There would have been about 5000 people there and lots of things for children.This matsuri was previously held at the Cowandilla Primary School.Have been trying to find some flash cards in Hiragana and Romaji in Adelaide, but to no avail.Asked several people at the festival,but they could not assist me..go online they said..or ikimasu off to Nihon.Well Jason, that is about all from sunny, getting cooler Adelaide..ogenki de, Noel.
ReplyDeleteKonnichiwa again Jason...you must be feeling relieved Essendon's win against the cats was not for he faint hearted.They looked like they were going to be over run in the last quarter,but hung on fortunately to record an important win...so season not over yet.Straight kicking by JD and another tall up forward and plenty of dash by the small forward brigade shows promise/hope.On that form, now stand a good chance of beating the WCE this coming weekend.
ReplyDeleteHi Noel,
ReplyDeletegood to hear from you. I went along to the Kodomo no Hi festival a couple of times. It is quite good, a lot of good displays and exhibitions there. That's a shame about the okonomiyaki. As you may know, it is my favourite Japanese food!
Did see that the Bombers beat the Cats. It is going to be an up and down year for them. I think the naysayers are just earning their salary with all of the hyperbole. It will definitely be a much better year than last year, but remembering that most of the first choice team are coming back from a year out of the game, they are doing well.
Anyway Noel, take care and I'll see what I can find here in Japan re: flashcards.
Jason.