10/03/2026
Japan in May:
After our afternoon making our way around Hakone by various means of transport, we headed to our ryokan ( traditional Japanese Inn) called Gora Hanaougi for the night. This part of the trip was definitely something for me and not Chase as I knew the experience would not be her cup of tea- onsens, futons, and a kaiseki meal full of strange foods but I wanted to experience for just a night and one night was plenty.
Gora Hanaougi is a 5 star luxury ryokan in Hakone which offer a serene setting, both public and private onsens, traditional tatami-matted rooms and traditional kaiseki meals. Definitely not budget friendly but similarly priced to others in this category.
As soon as you enter you remove your shoes. The hallways have mats so walking barefoot is comfortable. We were shown to our room to relax some before dinner ( more on dinner in the next post). Our room had a nice view, lots of skin and hair products, was fairly large, a plate of welcoming sweets and a highlight for me the private onsen. Onsen is a thermal bath from the thermal hot springs with health benefits but you bathe in them naked whether public or private so I preferred mine private. I saved my bathe until after dinner.
While at dinner, they came and made up our futons….. they were thick and very comfortable. My only complaint, which I realized after returning to the room, was that yhe staff did not give us instructions on the ac machine or the countless switches many of which seemed to do nothing. Much more of an introduction to the functioning aspects of the room is needed. My guess is it isn’t done because they are not very fluent in English. I saw this in Japan a lot but expected more from a 5 star place. If staff cannot explain because of languages issues they should have a detailed instruction booklet in various languages.
Our ac crapped out in the middle of the night so with the thermal bath the room was humid and warm but I wasn’t calling people up at 3am to fix and wake Chase.
The onsen was very lovely though and I thoroughly enjoyed soaking in it for about 45 minutes. Of course I needed to sometimes get partly out to cool a little before submerging again. Gosh my skin felt so incredibly soft afterwards. The next morning we had a western breakfast by choice and made our way to Tokyo.
