Hello, All

I am thinking of traveling to Japan this October. I am flying into FUK on sunday morning and thinking about renting a car to go to Kurokawa area. I am planning on staying there for 2 nights and fly to Tokyo.

My questions are...

1. Is it cheaper to stay in onsen during weekend? or weekdays? does sunday count as weekdays?

2. I want to stay in small establishment that really feels like authentic japanese house. I am looking to spend about $200 per person per night. Any recommendations?

3. What would be the best way to reserve these? I was looking at japanguesthouses.com. Is this good site to reserve?

4. Would it be better to spend one night in two different onsen? or spend both nights in one place?

Thank you very much for your input in advance.

Trav

1. Fri, Sat & Sun usually count as weekends.

2. I have not been to Kurokawa yet but am planning on staying here when we go

http://www.japaneseguesthouses.com/d...kawa/sanga.htm

3. Yes JGH is reliable and a great site to use if you do not read Japanese. I have used them for over 20 reservations now and am obviously pleased with their service.

4. I usually spend two nights but I notice that most everyone else including the Japanese tourist will only spend one night. The Japanese tourist will use the ryokans as an overnight just as they did centuries ago while traveling from place to place throughout Japan. Staying two nights will usually give you the better rooms and definitely the better foods as you are spending more money and they do appreciate that fact. You usually get something special cooked up by the chef for you on the second evening as by then they will know what you like and don't like not only by what you tell them at check in but what you eat and don't eat with your meals. The Japanese are very attentive.

Aloha!

I visited Kurokawa onsen in April 2008 and stayed at Sanga Ryokan (the one that hawaiian traveler recommends). It was magical, phenomenal, wonderful. There were other ryokans in the area should Sanga be booked. If you decide to stay more than one night, you can onsen- hop.

Getting to Sanga on our own, on public transport, was a little tricky and took a while to figure out. That year, the internet was not very helpful because the train/bus times were not accurate. From Kumamoto, we had to book a train/bus combo at the station. The staff at Kumamoto station was wonderful but they didn't speak English so it was a bit of work but in the end, we got our bus tickets, no problem. We used our JR passes to get from Kumamoto to Aso station. We considered trying to see the volcano but it was closed that day. From Aso, we had to wait an hour or two for a bus, and there is NOTHING to do at that station. The bus was 960 yen each and took about 1.5 hrs. All in all, it took us about 5 hours to get from Kumamoto to Sanga. It was well worth it.

I used JGH for other bookings but had a friend in Japan book the Sanga for me. If I recall correctly, the price at the time ran around $150 per person. I remember that I got a price cheaper than one on the JGH offered because I did not have a bathtub in the room - just a toilet, which is fine since you do most of your bathing in the onsen.

If everything on JGH is booked, you can also try japanican.
The folks at JGH are awesome but sometime it is annoying waiting 24-48 hours everytime you have a question or quote. With japanican, it books like every other service. When using JGH, I try to be as specific as possible and ask for a few options right off the bat, if possible. Otherwise, they will give you one rec, and then from there you have to ask if there are cheaper rooms or whether there are other options in the area.

While in Japan, because of the cost, I usually spend one night in the ryokan and another night in a cheaper accomodation in the area. While in the ryokan, I do not leave the grounds in order to soak up the atmosphere. While the food would no doubt be just as lovely the 2nd day, I prefer to eat lightly the next day or try a different place for some variety. Just my $0.02.

Feel free to ask me more questions - I will look in my "Japan" folder to see if I have more info about getting to Sanga.

Here is the Sanga website. http://www.sanga-ryokan.com/
It is all in Japanese but if you click around you can see the pictures. I have stayed in seven different ryokans over two trips to Japan and Sanga was one of most traditional ones (the other being Kuroyu in Nyuto Onsen). I do not think you can go wrong there but I have not stayed elsewhere in Kurokawa Onsen. As I mentioned above, you may be able to save some $$ if you request a room without a private bathtub.

Good luck!