I woke up early to have a bath before we checked out. Jives also went. The baths in Oita might have been my favourite thus far, as both  the indoor and outdoor baths were huge! I could soak in the water all day, but that is probably not great for your health. We sat and enjoyed a coffee from the vending machine before packing up and heading to the train station at 7am ish for our 8am train to Aso. We got some snacks and sat in a little waiting area on the platform before our train arrived. 

We got on a Kyushu limited Express train bound for Aso. The train had lovely wooden floors and green and yellow check curtains. It was a pretty short ride and we arrived at Aso station at 10:03am. We then had until 2pm before our bus left for Kurokawa onsen. We looked at quite a few bus timetables…. Which becomes relevant later…

Harith wanted to take a bus to Aso volcano crater which sounded pretty neat, but it was raining and pretty foggy. We were all going to go to the crater, but the information about the bus was confusing. The bus ride was 50 minutes but also 5 minutes and cost 1800Yen and also 700Yen.. Also the line for the bus was so long with so many Chinese tourists (like a big tour group). I asked the ticket man which bus it was and he just said yes, dismissing the question. I had a panic attack and had to get out of line. I either needed 700Yen cash immediately or 1800 Yen on my suica card, both of which I did not have…so I exited the line as did Jives. Harith got on the bus and went to the volcano. 

Jives and myself decided to walk one hour to Aso Temple in the rain, which proved to be a very lovely walk. We walked through farmer fields (down the laneways) and local neighbourhoods with beautiful gardens. We saw so many cosmos and a lovely masterpiece garden that looked like it was someone’s life’s work, with rocks and tiny stone homes and buildings with bridges built into them, each handcrafted and with flowers growing throughout. I was in awe. 

We wandered down a lovely dense bamboo grove and came to a crossroads where literally every direction was gorgeous, rivers on one side, orange flowers, rice fields and misty mountain ranges. We walked by schools as they announced the lunch break. We also climbed the steps to a little shrine with a persimmon tree full to the max with fruit. The walk was lovely and just what we needed after spending so much time on buses and trains. 

Aso Temple itself was a huge wooden structure that strongly smelt of fresh Hinoki Japanese Cedar (probably my favourite smell in the world). There wasn’t a lot to see at the temple, but we stood and enjoyed some taiko drumming by a priest before walking back to Aso station. 

We arrived at Aso station around 1pm and Harith was waiting on the bench. He had arrived at 12:45from his trip to Aso volcano. He said the first bus was 1800Yen and then the shuttle bus was 700Yen or you could walk the last bit. This explained our confusion from earlier. He said he couldn’t see much at all on top of the volcano, as it was so cloudy and rainy, which was a shame. We headed off to grab some snacks at a nearby lawson. 

We had looked at multiple bus schedules earlier so I thought our bus was at 2:40pm but it was at 2:10pm. We arrived back at the station at 2:15pm. To say Harith was upset was an understatement. I will try my best to keep it positive here, but I had my fourth panic attack of the day. I said I would pay for a cab to our accommodation and apologized, but apparently nothing was going to fix this. I went into the station and asked the lady at the tourist desk if she could help to call a cab, as none were at the stand. The lady was super nice and said it would be a 15-20 minute wait. I told Jives and Harith the wait would be 10 minutes, which thankfully it was… We jumped in the cab and drove 42 minutes to the bus stop in Kurokawa onsen village. The taxi drive was absolutely gorgeous, as we drove all the way up and down volcanic mountains. Harith was busy emailing the hotel to say we would be late to the pick up spot, but in all actuality we were maybe 6 minutes late, as we stood on the wrong side of the road for the pick up. Both Jives and I saw a van drive up (which was our van to the Ryokan) but didn’t want to assume anything. Our cab driver came back to where he dropped us off, just to tell us to stand on the other side of the road (which was so nice of him). The cab ride cost me 9450 Yen or $94 Canadian and we probably arrived minutes after the bus, but this event changed the tone for the entire rest of the trip. People make mistakes. I apologized profusely but… I don’t think anything would have made it right.

We got in our transfer van to the ryokan and we apologized to the driver for making him wait a few minutes. We drove about five minutes into the little village where our ryokan was. The roads were so narrow and winding. The forest was so dense and lovely. 

We arrived at the ryokan and we were welcomed with tea and red bean mochi. We then filled out a form and were told about the baths (outdoor and indoor) as well as the meal time. We then were given a key and walked to our room. 

The room was in an annex where we removed our shoes and had little slippers to wear between buildings, marked with our room name “Egonoki”. The room was up a flight of stairs. The room was actually comprised nine rooms and a little genkan: 2 tatami rooms, one with a table and floor chairs, a long hallway with a wooden table and two stools, a powder room, a washroom and a transfer room with a view of the waterfalls beside our room, a changeroom (with baskets with towels) and the onsen room with a little wash station, mirror, soap and the stool to sit on as you rinse with the wooden bucket. The onsen was half the size of the room, maybe 4 feet by 4 feet and pretty deep, with a single spout constantly pouring hot water into the stone basin. The room was beyond expectations. 

We all changed into our yukata and went for a brief walk around the grounds before dinner at 6pm. We sat at the foot onsen and then dried our feet by the fire pit. We wandered around, taking so many photos. The pathways were lined with little stone lanterns. There were cute little stone statues dotted around; a rabbit, a frog, a monk… 

We then headed to dinner in the main building at 6pm. We were seated in our own little room with a lit up view of the forest outside. There were many courses. The first was vegetarian sashimi, cucumbers, tofu skin, wasabi and a little roll made of daikon and various other vegetables. Next we had a warm broth with mushroom and green bean with a carrot cut into a sakura bloom and an onion cut like a rabbit!! For our third dish we had a roasted slice of eggplant with miso paste, sweet potato and okra. Then we had a super silky tofu, almost pudding-like consistency with broth, before a fresh bowl of soba with green onion garnish. For dessert we had melon, pear and kiwi slices. 

After dinner we tried to walk to a nearby corner store with a cat, but the roadway was closed. We headed to the baths instead! The outdoor bath closed at 10pm so we went there first. There were two outdoor baths, one for women and the other was mixed, but I assume mostly men use that one. I entered the women’s outdoor bath and there was no one there!!! The bath could have easily accommodated 40 people, it was huge (a bit bigger than the men’s bath).I deposited my stuff in a basket and then rinsed off my body with the small bucket provided beside a small barrel of water. I then got in the bath. My experience with other outdoor baths is that they are often very cold, but this one was hot!! The closer to the spout you get, obviously the hotter it was. There were two covered areas to sit in, in case it was raining. Huge rocks dotted the outer edge of the bath and even in the middle, so you could sit like a mermaid on a rock if you wished, in order to cool down. There was even a view down to the loud rushing river! I soaked for a long time and no one came in the entire time I was there. I tried sitting in many different spots. I then dried off and waited for the boys outside the bath. 

Jives and I then decided to  go to the indoor bath. I entered the changeroom and there was one older lady in the room, trying to use the hairdryer. She asked me if I knew how to work it. I said sorry, as I did not know… I then looked confused and tried to figure out which door went to the bath. The lady showed me the correct door and said “oyasumi” or goodnight as she left. I entered the bath and once again it was empty. I washed at the little wash station and then entered the bath. This bath was much smaller and much colder. The bath was maybe 6 feet by 6 feet total. I soaked here for a while before getting out. I met Jives outside, perfect timing! 

Back at the room the futon beds had been set out. Two beds were in one room and one in the room with the kotatsu. We sat at the little wooden table and had a drink (grapefruit ) we had bought at the station, before bed.

We woke up at about 5am in our comfy futon beds in our private ryokan room. Jives and I headed to the private bath in our room to soak in the hot water. The private bath was very small but very deep and pretty warm (the air was chilled as the rooms all opened out to the outdoors). There was a small wash station in the little washing room and a bath that was maybe 4’ x4’ in size. We both rinsed and got in. The bottom of the bath was super rock! It was lovely being able to bathe in the comfort of our own room. We soaked until around 6am when we thought we heard Harith waking up, so we got out of the bath so that he could use the space. We returned to our futon, and Harith woke up closer to 7am and took a turn in the bath as well. We made some instant coffee and then headed to the outdoor bath to soak before breakfast. 

Once again we both had the huge outdoor baths to ourselves. I forgot to mention that Sanga Onsen says “no tattoos” but if you have a very small tattoo, you can show them and they will say whether you are allowed in the public baths. You can also book a private bath. The lady at reception said my tattoo was okay to go in the bath, as it is very small (2”x ¾”) . After a lovely soak in the outdoor bath with the sun just coming up, we headed to breakfast in the same spot that we had had dinner. 

Breakfast was HUGE, but not as huge as dinner had been. We had steamed spinach, miso soup, a hot pot with steamed veggies and rice, grapefruit, macha, a salad, some vegetables in broth (daikon etc), a side of pickles and a crispy tofu dish with miso paste. Breakfast was great! Harith had pre arranged with the ryokan to provide a vegetarian meal for all three of us, which was lovely. 

We then went back to the room to soak once more in the private bath before check out. At about 9:30am we headed down to checkout. The lady at reception took some photos of us in front of the hotel. We then waited for the shuttle bus to take us to the bus stop that would take us to Aso station. At 10:10am we boarded the shuttle bus and waved goodbye to the staff. The drive was maybe 5 minutes. We then waited at the bus stop for quite awhile, as the bus to Aso was late. Lots of other people were waiting for the bus too…. I began to worry that we might not get on the bus. Apparently you need a reservation to take the bus down to Aso station. I hadn’t done any research on this Ryokan, as Harith had booked it and I wasn’t sure which Kurokawa onsen it was until we arrived. Thankfully there were a few spots available once the bus had loaded all the passengers with reservations. The bus down to Aso station took about 40-50 minutes and cost 1800Yen each.