Kanaya Ryokan

Had an afternoon out at the next town along the railway line, before catching the train back here to stay overnight. We had been going to eat in the next town, in case the hotel wasn't doing food, but the description on the website made the food sound such a feature that we decided we'd like to do it. Unsurprisingly on a midweek night in January, they weren't doing food, but that was fine, we wandered along to 7-11 and got a wonderful picnic of pot noodles and all sorts of interesting things. We stayed in a Japanese room in the main building and it was fantastic, so great to stay in somewhere so historic! The room was unchanged from 100 years ago, apart from the addition of wifi, heating, air con! The bedding was really warm and comfy. When we got there, the main bath area seemed quite busy, so we went to use one of the private baths (you take a token from Reception and hang it on the door to indicate occupied, remember to return it to Reception afterwards). You take your outdoor shoes off at Reception and swap to indoor slippers, which you take off at the entrance to your room and just walk in socks on the tatami mats. There are separate outdoor-slippers which you use to walk to the block with the private baths in, take them off in the porch area outside that block. The man on Reception was lovely and helpful in explaining all this! The private bath was great - a set of three pools at different temperatures. We then decided to have a little nap and go to the thousand-person bath after 9pm when the day-visitors had left. We slept for longer than expected, and woke up at 1am, so went to the big bath then (it's open all night for residents). Unsurprisingly, we had it to ourselves at that hour! The getting through from the ladies' changing rooms to the mens/joint bath was a lot easier than expected - there is an area of knee-deep water, with a door and a row of hooks with keys on wristbands. I took a key, unlocked the door and went through. I left my key with my towel on the side of the bath, but I guess you're supposed to keep them on your wrist. The water temperature was lovely, and the bath was beautiful, a really great experience. You can also go out to a little outside area, which is slightly cooler (in January, at least, maybe not in mid-summer). It was an amazing place to stay, and well worth visiting.