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Cubicle Dreamin'

Cubicle Dreamin': Boiling Eggs and Boiling Baths

Where: 1269 Yu Shin Onsen-cho, Yumura, Japan, 669-6821

June 15, 2007 at 10:30 AM | 0 Comments

Cubicle Dreamin' is a feature in which we ask the hotel mavens to take some time out of their busy work day, surf the Internet, and tell us what hotel they wish they could beam themselves to right that very second--all on the slave driving companies dime, of course. Oh, like these people aren't surfing aimlessly anyway--at least now their purposeless clicking will be cobbled together into useful hotel stories--we hope. Have a destination hotel you are just dying to leave your cube for? Send the story our way.

In this episode, Hotel Maven Amanda K heads to Japan. Enjoy.

Staying in any kind of traditional Japanese hot spring resort has got to be a highlight on any travel plans, but I've just stumbled across the details of an onsen I was lucky enough to spend a weekend in some years back, and I'd just die to get back there.

Some rich Japanese friends once spoilt me at the Asanoya Hotel in Hyogo prefecture (north-east of Osaka). There is nothing that's not incredible about this place: just start from the outside, which looks like a traditional Japanese castle. It's located in the small village of Yumura, famed for its natural hot springs, which produce 3000 tons of almost boiling water daily. In the streets of the village, there are even opportunities to boil eggs in the spring--with the strange yet unique outcome that, when properly boiled, the yolk is solid but the white is runny.

If weirdly-boiled eggs aren't your thing, then the feasts provided in the Asanoya will tempt you. They'll serve you dinner in your room, and it'll be a gorgeous feast following the kaisekiryori principles, which basically means your food will look like an artwork and it'll taste incredible too.

Finally, you can clean up in the separate men's and women's hot springs, located in the ground floor of the hotel. As long as you're a little familiar with onsen etiquette (for example, wash yourself before getting in the bath), you'll come out refreshed, relaxed and ready for bed on the futons laid out by the staff in about the same area you just ate dinner. The good news is that with a weaker yen, prices are more affordable now: a basic double room including dinner and breakfast costs 36,000 yen (about $300) on a weeknight, or you can splurge on a room with your own private hot spring for 73,000 yen ($600).

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· Bathing in a Japanese Onsen [HotelChatter]
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