A not so cold Japanese winter.

[rbjhan]

This trip actually took place in Feb, before going to Spain.
But I got into planning mode almost straight afterwards so apologies for being tardy

The itinerary:
MEL - NRT JL774
Tokyo - Karuizawa - Myoko Kogen - Kanazawa - Osaka - Kyoto
(Hoping to see lots of snow but that didn't happen!)

KIX - HKG CX595
Overnight in HK.

HKG - MEL CX105

 

[rbjhan]

JL774 (78K QFF)
Well identical flight to the one in the Spain TR...


Like the steam eye mask. Face mask not so much



Western breakfast




I did use the Narita 9 Hours for a shower before heading to Tokyo (no arrival lounge in NRT).
First time ever in a capsule hotel, it was very futuristic...

 

[rbjhan]

Hoshinoya Tokyo
Oh man, what to say about this one...

Well it's very pretty, not denying that. But I most certainly won't be back.


Let's start from the beginning, shall we?
I initially reserved 2 nights on the hotel website, later added 2 nights via IKYU. You wouldn't expect this to be a problem even for a Toyoko Inn...Somehow EVERYONE was oh so confused when I first showed up to drop off the luggage...
Came back at 3pm, they still couldn't figure it out! At the end I had to change rooms on day 3. Not impressed.

By the way, I made both reservations well in advance (> 6 months). For a hotel at this price point one would expect them to actually notice such things and communicate with guest beforehand...

So the pictures were from two different rooms...







Also, in typical Japanese fashion, duvets are extremely warm. I asked for summer duvets which was provided then promptly forgotten when the room change happened.

 

[rbjhan]

The hotel actually has a lot going for it. Unfortunately the service let it down...

Location is convenient, directly connected to Otemachi station which has 4 different lines. Free Marunouchi shuttle bus can take you all the way to Hibiya. Lots of restaurants nearby (underground).
Room is spacious by Tokyo standards, although there is no view to speak of.
And I liked the concept of the lounge very much (one on each floor!), almost feels like an extension of your room...


I love daybeds period.

 

[rbjhan]

Tokyo for me is all about the food!

My new favourite ramen


Sashimi


Yakitori Ranjatai*


Wagyu (Ginza Ishizaki **)
Must say the best wagyu I've had is still Niku Miyoshi in Kyoto...



Tokyo University canteen

 

[rbjhan]

I did visit several museums in Tokyo, but photos were not allowed...
The Currency museum run by Bank of Japan in Nihombashi was very good, and free

Also caught the special exhibition "Unrivaled Calligraphy: Yan Zhenqing and his legacy" in Tokyo National Museum. I didn't know but this one turned out to be super popular...queued for one hour to see the one masterpiece "Requiem to my nephew " for about 20 seconds...oh dear...

Apparently quite some controversy surrounding the loan of that masterpiece from Taiwan...

 

[rbjhan]

After 5 days in Tokyo when the temperature actually hit 18c one day, I was ready to go see some countryside and also snow!

I'm not really a fan of JR Passes (especially the National one) as you'd be doing some really mad long distance travel to make it worthwhile...Instead I just bought a Gran Class ticket to Karuizawa.

I've done a lot of Shinkansen but never a Gran Class, now that was truly exciting.




My seat


Fully reclined


This was an Asama Shinkansen so no attendants onboard, slightly cheaper than the normal ones.

It was about half full iirc. What really impressed me was how the JR staff allocated seats to the passengers so each group of us ended up with one row to ourselves, talk about attention to detail!

 

[rbjhan]

Hoshinoya Karuizawa
Well another one I'm so not going back.....and almost identical problems with Hoshinoya Tokyo and Kyoto. I honestly think the management just haven't invested in staff training...and almost everyone I saw was below 30? very curious what the hiring policy was like.

Staff could barely speak English. Spent some frustrating minutes on the phone when I asked for a summer futon...at the end had no choice but to walked to the front desk and showed them Google Translate.
I requested summer ones at all the hotels I stayed, this was the only time Google Translate had to be involved. You would think one works in this industry knows those basic words...

When the light futons were finally delivered, they didn't remove the warm winter ones. I had to drop it to the floor and hoping somebody would remove it the next day. Guess what, when I got back to the room day 2 afternoon those were back on the bed again! so they thought those weren't warm enough and I needed more?

 

[rbjhan]

Okay rant over...some pictures then.
Credit where it's due, just like the Tokyo property, visually it was stunning.







Main restaurant. Unlike most traditional ryokans where half board was standard, here the price is room only and you can choose where to eat (a few restaurants nearby).


Japanese breakfast.

 

[rbjhan]

Booked a Yamaroji room which was located near the hills. These offer the best privacy methinks. Mizunami rooms which were by the water as you can see above, looked like quite exposed.

Most rooms were grouped together in large villas- there were 5 here iirc.


Mine was on the ground floor.


Balcony. Come summer time this would be lovely.


Bathroom


Very nice cypress bath, even though there were 2 onsens.

 

[rbjhan]

Now the onsen! My favourite part of any ryokan stay.
As mentioned above there were two.

First one I visited was called meditation bath, hotel guest only. There were two areas inside, one was light and the other completely dark, as in you can't even see your own hands dark. I'm not sure about others but I got freaked out by this, how was I supposed to be meditating? Knowing someone else might be there and you can't see them?? yikes. Obviously didn't go back to that one...

Second one, Tombo-no-yu which was actually located outside the gates and open to the public.
This was more of a normal onsen thankfully (with indoor/outdoor baths etc). It was however quite crowded other than the early mornings when it was hotel guest only.



Picture from official website.

 

[rbjhan]

I realised I've been quite negative about the hotels so far, going forward it's all good, promise

 

[rbjhan]

Karuizawa is in Nagano prefecture, traditionally a resort town for the rich Tokyo people...there's a Premium outlet right next to the JR station and a few ski resorts nearby.
But Feb 2019 was so warm....no snow anywhere....other than the man made variety, sigh.
So I spent my time here in the outlets, heh heh.
Bought some Royal Copenhagen and other stuff....

 

[rbjhan]

Next stop was Myoko Kogen. Only place on this trip that I saw other Aussies - very popular ski town, technically in Niigata Prefecture.

A quick 30 mins on Hokuriku Shinkanse to Nagano, then transfer to Shinano Railway. Not long after Nagano the snow appeared, good sign.


Hotel sent a car to pick me up from Myoko Kogen station and after 10 mins or so we arrived!

 

[rbjhan]

Akakura Kanko Hotel
One of the earliest western style hotels in Japan, this one truly has a stunning setting - some 1000m above sea level halfway up the ski area.
It has the old world charm but also perfect Japanese hospitality. After the two Hoshinoya I started to question myself a bit, luckily saved by this one!

Booked via IKYU for a 部屋タイプ指定なし plan, as in you get assigned a room on arrival. Quite a few hotels offer this and usually it's the lowest price option. For one person I don't see any downside unless you really want that private onsen?

Anyways I got a spacious twin room facing Mt Myoko.


View


Bathroom was quite basic but hey, who cares? I certainly didn't use the bath.

 

[rbjhan]

The reason I didn't care was of course the onsen!
My oh my this was a good one. Top 3 of all the ryokans I've been so far.

Note: you are not supposed to take pictures inside the onsen of course. But I went very early and made sure no one but me was in it.

First thing I saw was this sitting area, with music playing.


View from the balcony!


The indoor/outdoor bath, aawwww

 

[rbjhan]

Another part of the hotel I love was the aqua terrace.
Again the view was amazing.


But the terrace itself was quite something too.

 

[rbjhan]

Went out for a walk....

 

[rbjhan]

There were 3 restaurants serving dinner. I opted for the Aqua Grill.
Overall it was delicious without being too memorable.
This was an upgraded dinner (+3000 Yen) rather than the standard one.

 

[rbjhan]

A few more pictures

Breakfast


Seasonal displays


Lounge in the main building


I can highly recommend this hotel.
In fact I'm going back next Feb