Kawazu Nanadaru - Outdoor hotspring under a waterfall

Talk about co-existence of extremes in Japan.

How would you react if you are faced with a half naked guy having a towel only small enough to cover either his frontal or backside in a co-ed hotspring (i.e. onsen), who suddenly realises he is not alone, and actually bows to you in the steamy cave and politely says 'sumimasen'?? Am I supposed to say 'hajime mashite...' (i.e. 'it's nice to meet you for the first time...')?

Onsen in these 7 tubs, where we experienced the above mentioned with another gentleman...

Of course that was not the highlight of our 2 days 1 night trip to verify an itinerary featured in Japan Hour*. Actually Naomi and I had just arrived at Kawazu Nanadaru area at Kawazu town, Shizuoka prefecture. Nana in Japanese means 7, and Odaru means waterfall. The Kawazu river tumbles down from Mt. Amagi and branches into 7 waterfalls in this town, eventually running down to deep sea, hence the name.

The river at Kawazu Nanadaru..

It had taken us about 2.5 hours to get here from Tokyo. We took a 45min bullet train (i.e. shinkansen) ride to Atami, an express train to Kawazu and then a mini-van pickup to the Odaru Onsen. Without the JR pass for foreigners, the transportation itself would cost as much as Yen12,000 (~S$190) 2-ways. With the JR pass that allows unlimited travel on bullet trains, the transportation 2-ways is about Yen6,000 (~S$100). I really think foreigners travel much cheaper in Japan than the locals and we should make full use of our advantage in this wondrous country.

Anyway, the purpose of this trip was to dig out 2 really authentic onsens, not easily known to foreigners. Even Naomi didn't know about them until we did our research. Japan Hour had recommended a green tea (i.e. macha) onsen at a traditional inn (i.e. ryokan) called Tsurabashi Ryokan. We were surely going to do that (and did it on the 2nd day), but we had found an even more special outdoor onsen. That is the Odaru Onsen.

Outdoor hotspring while overlooking a huge waterfall

Outdoor onsen overlooking the Odaru waterfall

The Odaru Onsen overlooks the largest of the 7 waterfalls at Kawazu Nanadaru and has various types of hotspring baths within the onsen itself. This includes a hotspring for people who want to have babies, and even hotsprings in a cave with tunnels that was really very fascinating (only thing was the hotspring water wasn't that hot). Our favorite though, was still the outdoor onsen overlooking the Odaru waterfall. The entire atmosphere was like having a bath in the forest, only better, because you have the river and the birds that come to feed...and in autumn, probably a blast of red and orange colors from the trees.

Imagine when the trees are full of autumn leaves...

The onsens are located down in a valley while the inn is at the top alongside the mountain. The water sprouting from underground is about 40 - 42 ℃. This may seem really hot but when the outside temperature is so cool at about 10 ℃, you just want to jump in asap. That is, until you realise that some half naked guy already submerged in the water is staring at you with dagger eyes...in which case you just hop onto another adjacent pool until he scrambles off after deciding that his backside is not as worth covering than his front. (Not to put off guys who are considering coming to this place. Just bring a swimming trunk and you won't ever be caught in this awkward position.) That little hiccup aside, which to me is really more amusing than a deterrent, Odaru Onsen is a beautiful beautiful place. As you close your eyes, soaked in the heat of the water with the cold air brushing your face, you can hear the waterfall gushing down the heights and the rushing flow of the river....all this time you would be thanking God for such wonderful nature created for man to enjoy.

We stayed over 1 night at Amagisou (http://www.amagisou.jp/) where the Odaru onsen was located. There are several types of rooms at this ryokan. Some of them have private onsens within the room, and balcony with seats overlooking the mountainous greens and sakura trees. We took the standard room without the bath nor the balcony since we were happy with the outdoor onsens, and it was too chilly to sit at the balcony. The room cost us Yen14,600 (~S$220)per person, and includes kaiseki dinner and breakfast. If you didn't bring a swimming costume/ trunk or towel, they can be rented at Yen300 (~S$5) and Yen200 (~S$3.50) respectively too.

Kaiseki dinner at Amagisou (this is only part of the entire course)


(I will be writing on how one should behave for an onsen soon so that whoever visits it one day will not find it such a cultural shock, but would enjoy it as the locals do :))

A feast for the eyes with beautiful sceneries

As if being here in this hotspring is not already worthwhile making this trip, there are also so many things to explore in this little town of Kawazu Nanadaru that will feast the tastebuds and eyes. The great thing is that all these are near enough to be explored on foot on a leisurely pace.

The unique thing about Kawazu is that it is probably one of the first places where sakuras bloom in Japan as the climate here is warmer. In Tokyo and Kyoto, for e.g., sakuras bloom in late March/ early April. At Kawazu however, they bloom by late February. If we had been 3 weeks earlier, we would not only have rows of sakuras lining the streets, but also outside our room. We still count our lucky stars that we saw a few remaining sakura trees along the way.

Sakura at Kawazu Nanadaru

On top of that, there were so many orange (i.e. mikan) trees too as Shizuoka is a place for producing them. Naomi and I bought a mikan each for Yen50, and I must say that...well, they were quite sour but still a good treat!

Mikan tree against a backdrop of sakuras...

We walked along the river meant for exploring the 7 waterfalls which are famous here. The weather is really cool and the walk was so refreshing. We didn't think we needed to see all the waterfalls but we had to go to this one.....

Shokei-daru waterfall


...the reason being that there is a picturesque statue of the famous dancing girl of Izu (i.e. Izu no Odoriko) who is the main character of a novel written by Kawabata Yasunari. In the story, a Tokyo student goes hiking in Izu, where he meets a young dancer. Though lonely and depressed, he begins to change after getting to know the girl and her family. Part of the setting of the story was along this river where they walked together. The novel was made into film 6 times, and Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1972) later won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese person to do so. 　

Wasabi Tororo Soba....and just about Wasabi everything!

Another really special thing we tried was Wasabi Tororo Soba, which we so fell in love that we had it over 2 days for lunch! Kawazu Town is famous as a producer of Japanese "wasabi" radish, carnations and irises, etc. If you love wasabi (and I know Singaporeans do. Admit it, you are a wasabi fanatic if you plonk chunks of the green stuff into your saucer dish for all your sushi and sashimi...), you are in heaven here.

Wasabi sold at S$6 - $10 each

The Wasabi Tororo Soba is really using lightly wasabi-flavored soba dipped into a light sauce (i.e. tsuyu) that has a plonk of grated yam in it. The secret lies in this grated yam dip and the fresh wasabi that you grate by yourself, and the fact that the soba is cold. It's so smooth! I can imagine eating this in summer or in hot & humid Singapore to cool down...if only I can have it everyday!!

My favorite Wasabi Tororo Soba at a shop called Kadoya near to Amagisou


Oh, and how can we forget the wasabi soft cream?! Hard to imagine (the packaging of stuff like wasabi chocolate reads.."could it be sweet?? could it be hot?? try it to know!")...and guess what, it was really oishi!! :)

Green tea onsen

We ended our trip with the much publicized macha green tea onsen at Tsurabashi Onsen (http://www.tsuribashiso.com/), which was just a 10min walk away from Odaru Onsen. It was a specially prepared bath made from green tea for us in a private hut. For Yen2,800 (~S$45) for a single time, we had thought that the onsen would be prepared in some really traditional way. In fact, Naomi and I imagined some lady in kimono pouring large wooden spoonfuls of green tea powder in a human sized tea cup and stirring it like how you do with normal tea...hahah...:) but it was not anything near to being so traditional! The process turned out real simple with green tea leaves being put into those white filter bag and immersed in hot spring water. It was still a great experience because the smell was so nice...and while you bathe, you can also see the water flowing in the river below.

The green tea onsen

The private hut we had

After dipping in 2 times in the Odaru Onsen and 1 time at the green tea onsen over 2 days, I actually think we had an overdose of onsens!! No doubt I would want to go back again though...maybe in November during autumn. Anybody interested? :)

Thanks Naomi for being my model in these photos!

* Refer to last section of the Japan Hour episode found at www.channelnewsasia.com/japanhour/highlights_jan17_2009.htm