We started our long journey day to the middle of nowhere in Hirosaki, Aomori northern Japan. I woke up at 7:30 am and began packing up our stuff. I bought Jives a coffee from the vending machine, as he was having difficulty waking up. We had to check out by 10am and we barely made it. At 9:50 they were cleaning the room next door to us, as I was finally able to drag Jives out of the room to check out. We then walked to Hirosaki station to put our big backpacks in a locker (700 Yen for 24 hours). We had packed an overnight bag to take with us to our first ever real Ryokan stay, up a remote mountain and nestled in a snowy valley in Aomori prefecture (the place with the highest snowfall on earth). We took the Konan Line (we asked at the tourist desk where this was, as it is sort of tricky to find: you have to cross over the station and go down some steps to a little secondary track) to Kuroishi. You buy the tickets to Kuroishi from a vending machine outside the Konan gate. It cost 470 Yen each. We then boarded the small local style train to Kuroishi. The ride took about 40 minutes (we took the 10:40- 11:14). Along the way we saw a huge group of swans in a field. I have never seen so many swans in one place. 

At Kuroishi Station we were to take a bus to Nijinkco, but apparently it doesn’t run in the winter. We went to the tourism office to ask what to do about the bus, and they gave us a bus schedule and explained that we had to go to Iamaichi instead (all through a translation app because they spoke zero English and we speak very limited Japanese). Then the tourism office lady led us to the back door of the bus ticket office and knocked on the door. She explained to the lady at the ticket office where we were going. For anyone else going to Lampo no Yado Aoni Onsen, if you go to the bus ticket office and say “Aoni Onsen ” they will know where to send you. We didn’t know that the onsen was just referred to as “Aoni Onsen” by locals, so this was tricky for us. We paid 700 Yen each for the return ticket to Aoni Onsen and back the next day. The lady explained that we needed the onsen to stamp our ticket once we got there, and she told us to be back by 2:20 pm to catch the only bus that day (again all in Japanese). 

We set off to explore Kuroishi for a couple of hours. We ate our snacks and had a coffee before wandering around town. We saw quite a few old fire stations and also some old wooden sake breweries in town. After walking around for an hour, we sat in the bus station to warm up. We talked to a nice lady who had been to Niagara Falls twice.

At 2:20pm we jumped on the bus. You grab a little numbered ticket on the way on the bus. The ride was about 30 minutes and we stopped in a random parking lot along the side of the road in the mountains, where the driver motioned for us to get off. We weren’t sure where to go, and walked over to a man standing next to a mini bus. We asked the man “Aoni Onsen desu ka?” and he said “hai’… this is definitely not proper Japanese, but it got the point across. Once on board he took our temperature and we filled out a check in form for the hotel (very standard in Japan). The bus left with us and one other person on board, and drove to a parking lot even further into the snowy mountains. We picked up a few more people before continuing on to Aoni onsen. The drive to Aoni Onsen was both terrifying and incredible. The drive took us up a mountain and deep within the woods. The pathways the bus took were barely larger than the bus. The snow was piled up so high at times that you could see nothing but white. One unwelcomed snow slide and we would have been completely buried. The bus kept fishtailing as it wound along the narrow roadways through the mountains, and I was certain that the back of the vehicle would get caught in a snowbank along one of the many hairpin turns. We continued on our way to the middle of nowhere for about 30 more minutes, leaving all signs of civilization in the dust (or perhaps more appropriately, snow).

Aoni Onsen has no electricity or telephone,  it is a completely off grid ryokan lit only by kerosene lamps. What a crazy change in scenery from our last few days spent in big cities like Sapporo! (You cannot drive yourself to Aoni onsen, and cabs will not drive there in the winter at least, so you do have to take the bus.) 

We arrived at our snowy winter paradise at 3:30pm and were welcomed into the main building. A lady gave us a welcome speech in Japanese as we tried our best to understand anything. We then were given a map with our room number and a list of rules in English and we were set off to find our room, kind of like an explorer. Our room was on the second floor of the main building, room 206. Our room had an outer gate type door leading into a little coat room, then a secondary sliding door that led to the main room with the tatami flooring. There was a table and two cushions in the middle of the room, with a welcome tea (to be assembled by us). The room was overwhelmingly hot because of the kerosene heater, and there was a single kerosene lamp hanging from the ceiling in the centre of the room. There was a shelf to the one side and a cupboard with the futons and bedding (to be assembled by us later according to a hand drawn diagram). 

The view from the room was of the river and the mixed gender bath. You could also see the waterfall off to the left. We made ourselves a tea and drank it, according to the instructions. Afterwards we changed into our Yukata. It was a long skirted traditional yukata with the obi (belt). You wrap the gown around yourself left side over the right (the opposite way is for the dead and very disrespectful). You then wrap the belt (obi) around, crossing at the back and knotting in the front. There was a heavier brown jacket to go over the top. The main yukata was light blue with the kerosene lamps printed on it. 

We then packed up a bag each with our two towels and a flashlight and headed down to one of  the baths.We headed out the back of the ryokan first, crossing over the snowy bridge towards the mixed and waterfall bath.  When we visited the snow was very deep and all of the pathways had huge pile ups of snow along the sides, well over our heads. The kerosene lanterns are dotted along the pathways, amongst the snow piles. The river that you cross over on the bridge was full of rocks, and they were also covered in at least a metre and a half of snow. We headed to the Takimi-no-yu waterfall viewing bath first. This bath was divided by gender, so Jives and I went our separate ways. I walked into the changeroom, but could see there were about 15 women in a bathing space that was about 3 metres by 2 metres, all bathing. This felt too crowded for me, so I went back outside and sat down to wait for Jives to bathe. As I was waiting for Jives, a man and lady walked up to the split gender bath. The man walked into the men’s side and the lady slowly followed him. I heard him yell from inside the bath, probably something like “hey the ladies bath is over there”. The lady looked over at the women’s door where I was waiting and saw me and started laughing like crazy! She seemed rather blind and it was adorable. She said something to me in Japanese and I smiled and laughed…. I really wish I understood more. 

I decided to go to the mixed gender bath on my own, as there was noone in there. The water was a bit cold,but it is completely outdoors, so I assume the water cools much quicker, because the water at the source was certainly hot! The changeroom is also outdoors, so it is quite chilly to use this bath in the middle of February.

Jives came out after a long bath and we walked back to the main building to have dinner at 6pm. We headed down to the eating hall just before 6pm. We had two little assigned seating trays on the floor with our room number on them, right in front of the drinks counter. You go up to the communal counter to get miso soup, rice and grilled fish on a stick. You have a lighter at the table to light your own hotpot dish from underneath. After a few minutes the hot pot starts to boil. Inside there was a white fish, carrot, mushroom and cabbage. It seemed most people scooped the hotpot up and placed it on their rice and ate it. We ordered a “nama biru” from the counter (draft beer) and sat down at our own cushions to fill ourselves up completely! 

After dinner we went to the little gift shop and bought a little bottle of sake branded by the ryokan. We then returned to our room to try the sake before heading to the baths again, in hopes that the crowds would be less if we waited to go later in the evening. We decided to set up our futon beads. You place the mattress down first and then you place a sheet over top of the mattress, tucking it under the mattress along the sides. Next you place the duvet on top of the mattress. The duvet was already covered, but sometimes you need to place the cover on the duvet. The hole in the cover is placed upwards so that the exposed duvet does not come in contact with your skin. Lastly, put the pillow case on the pillow. 

We headed out to the baths around 8pm, deciding to head to the bath out front of the ryokan called “Kenroku”. This bath is also a split gender bath and is made of Hida wood which smelt incredible. The sun was completely set by this point, (sets at 5pm in the winter) so we used our flashlights to guide the way out of the front doors to the bath. 

Once inside the bath, I saw one lady in the tub, so I got undressed and went into the bathing room. In these baths you have a trough with warm water near the entrance. You use a wooden bucket to rinse yourself and there is soap and shampoo provided. You pour water over yourself using the bucket and clean yourself completely before entering the bath. Make sure not to get your water or soap in the communal trough or the bath itself. Then you take your little towel and get into the bath. Don’t let your towel touch the water though. A lot of people will rest their towel on their heads or leave it along the side of the bath. 

As soon as I got in the bath the lady in there yelled over the top of the wall to the men’s side to her husband, saying something like “we are leaving now”, so I was able to enjoy the bath on my own for quite awhile. The air was so steamy, I could hardly see, not to mention the entire bath was only lit up by one kerosene lamp. After a few minutes I heard someone enter the women’s change room and then the bath opened up and a little old lady with a head lamp (the kind a miner would use) popped her head in and looked around. She was with a friend and they were both laughing like school girls, presumably because they couldn’t see much at all. It was incredibly hard to see between the steam and the low light. The ladies got into the bath, still giggling. They clearly could not tell that I was not Japanese, as they tried to make conversation with me. I really wish I knew more Japanese than I do. My reading is much better than my conversational Japanese, but both are pretty bad. 

After a few minutes I went to the outside portion of the bath. There was a kettle tub bath with steps leading up to it.. So I went in! I felt like I was in a big pot of soup, but the view looking out at  the single kerosene lamp with the mountains of snow surrounding me was a pretty magical moment. I got out and retraced my steps back to the changeroom (the little old ladies got out of the bath and went to explore the outdoor bath, still giggling). I changed back into my yukata and met Jives outside. He had just come out from the bath too. 

We then set out to the back of the ryokan to go to the mixed gender bath together, “Rotenburo open-air bath”. There was no one at the mixed gender bath, so we got changed and stepped in. We enjoyed that bath for about 30 minutes, as no one came to join us. The water wasn’t too hot to sit in for a long time. 

Next we headed to the “Takimi-no-yu” waterfall bath. This time no one was in the bath (this is the bath that was too crowded earlier) on the women’s side or the men’s side, so I actually went in. The baths are 24 hours, but no one seemed to be out at 9pm. I got in the bath alone, as did Jives on the other side. We could talk over the wall to one another, which was nice. We sat there quite a while, maybe until 9:30pm. I went to check out the waterfall view bath, but it was impossible to see anything, so I retreated back indoors. After this bath we debated going to the final bath in the main building, but it sounded pretty busy so we retreated to our room instead. Our room was so hot when we returned, as the kerosene heater was very effective! We had to open the window a crack to go to sleep.

We woke up at around 6:30 am in our futon overlooking the snowy mountains and streams of Aomori prefecture. What a setting! I made us a green tea from the thermos on the kotatsu and we watched the snow fall. We headed to breakfast at 7:28 as it started at 8 and our bus left at 8:20am. Breakfast was much like dinner had been with the self-serve miso soup and rice station. The breakfast hotpot had instructions to add an egg. Once again the meal was delicious! We left with just enough time to pack up our stuff and run down to reception to pay our bill ($250 total with two beers from the night before. A real steal for a traditional ryokan experience). We jumped on the bus to take us down to the bus stop. Once again the ride was crazy, winding and turning with snow well over the sides of the bus. As we drove off, the staff waved and bowed. 

We arrived down at the bus stop in time to jump on the Konan bus pretty much right away. I stood up for most of the ride, as the bus only sat about 20 people and three older ladies got on the bus. The bus arrived at the station at 9:37am and the train left at 9:40 so we ran to the vending machine to buy a ticket, but we were behind a lady that was having a lot of difficulty. We JUST got aboard the train as it was pulling away. The train ride was about an hour, and we arrived in Hirosaki to retrieve our bags from the lockers. The lockers are 700 Yen for 24 hours, and we got in just under the wire. If you go over the time limit, you will be prompted to pay more money to retrieve your bag (don’t worry they won’t take your bag away).