Relaxing and eating

Nestled in the mountains between Tokyo and Mount Fuji lies the the Magi Onsen. A beautiful spa retreat away from the hustle and bustle of Japanese city life. You come here to lie in hot baths, wander around the stunning gardens and eat some of the best food we have yet to encounter.

The Onsen lies at the halfway point of our trip. A rest, replenish and recharge in preparation for Tokyo. But the journey here was not without it's difficulties. While in Kyoto we had booked our train tickets, four trains and three transfers. That was no problem until we pulled out the information sheet for our hotel as we got off the last train and realised we had gone one stop too far along the line and the bus we needed to catch was departing from the previous station. So back we went to Otsuki station and unloaded out onto the street. Up until this point although hotels or restaurants might have signs in Japanese characters most transport or tourist maps have had the English version. Otsuki did not have this, neither did they have anyone who spoke more English. They did have a lady with an armband directing buses who seemed to get the idea when we pointed to the routes and stops on our page. The next bus was in 40 minutes... 35 minutes later we asked her, well as best we could, which bus we should get on as by this time there were four pulled up. We again showed her the booking information page hoping she may know it and tell the bus driver where to stop. She did appear to recognise the name and disappeared of in a hurry towards the station. When she returned she had a man in tow who we later discovered was the shuttle bus driver for our Onsen. But we hadn't quite clicked yet and travelling in a foreign country you do have to be a little careful whose mini bus you get into. Both he and the bus directing lady seemed a little unsure of what to do but eventually after he disappeared for a minute he seemed very sure we should go with him. We agreed as we still didn't know when to get off the public bus or where to go from the bus stop.. It did help that when we got to his mini bus it was full of other happy smiling people.

Coming back to the food, you may have noticed that I have mentioned food a few times in my writings. This is because it's all so very very good, in fact I think food will need a whole post of it's own at some stage. But in the meantime, let me emphasise how good the food here is by saying that our dinner last night consisted of 14 different items and our breakfast of 12.

Bamboo water spout

View from the ridge above the onsen

Lion guarding near by temple