Natsuse Onsen Miyakowasure
I’m very excited to talk about this place because this was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in Japan. For starters, I’d like to say that I’ve heard many good things about this onsen hotel. I’ve always wanted to try visiting an onsen, but my fear of being naked and sharing a hot bath with strangers got in the way. I figured this would be a great place for an introduction to onsens and how to use them, so Zach and I booked an overnight stay.
This trip made me more comfortable with onsens and it exceeded my expectations. We had an amazing host who spoke incredible English and helped us from the time we checked in until we checked out. This place is insanely fancy. The staff really treats you like royalty and they do a great job at making this feel like a personal experience. This onsen hotel has only 10 guest rooms total, so it’s hard to book and it’s kind of pricey (about $300 per person). However, the five course meal that’s served along with the private onsen is worth every single penny. I have many good things to say about this place!
Getting There
This onsen hotel is in a remote area, it’s way up in a mountain. The last 20 minutes of the journey were just rocky mountain roads. There are shuttle buses that bring people up to the hotel but we decided to drive ourselves so we wouldn’t feel pressured by shuttle schedules. Eventually, we arrived safely and our host was already in the parking lot waiting for us. We felt extra special because he greeted us by name.
Part of the mountain roads we had to drive.
The mountain roads were pretty but they can be scary at times with sharp turns and narrow parts.
When we got inside, our host made sure we were settled in and asked what drink we would like while we wait for our papers. He listed off several drinks but he seemed VERY excited about the beer, so that’s what we ended up getting. He also gave us complementary iburigakko, which is Japanese pickled radish. It paired very well with the beer.
The lobby
Beer and iburigakko
Our Room
Our room was a traditional style Japanese room, equipped with tatami mats and futons. In this particular hotel, every room has its own private open air bath. Scroll to see a small gallery of the room and outdoor bath.
Our bedroom with 2 futons. The comforter on top was probably the fluffiest comforter I’ve ever seen.
The bathroom
The tatami room was my favorite.
The shower was mainly wood. The door leads outside to the bath.
The view outside of the window. We could see our little outdoor bath.
This is the gorgeous outdoor bath. We spent a lot of time out here. Whenever we would get too hot we’d go back inside for a bit, then went right back in when we cooled down.
Private Onsen
There is a private onsen you can book for 50 minutes during your stay at this hotel. Before we were led to our rooms, our host asked us which time slot we preferred and showed us how to get to the onsen. Luckily for us, our room was just across from it. All we had to do was go in and lock the door behind us. We had the whole onsen to ourselves which was nice.
The onsen was a lot hotter than our open air bath, so it was a challenge to stay in the water for so long. It was quite relaxing though once I got used to it.
A rule everyone should know before using any onsen in Japan is that you must rinse yourself before entering the water. This area is for exactly that.
5 Course Dinner
In every room there are sets of “relax wear” that you can wear around the hotel. This is what Zach and I wore to dinner. This hotel’s food is all local ingredients and meat from around Akita. Everything is fresh and delicious! For dinner, we had a whole room to ourselves and our host brought us each course. He told us what everything was and how to eat it correctly. I enjoyed almost all of the food. I say almost because there was a snail that I just couldn’t muster up the courage to eat. Other than that, everything else was divine. My favorite dish was this wagyu beef that we put on a hot stone to cook. Words can’t describe how amazing this meat was. It completely melted in my mouth and I would give anything to go back in time and taste it all over again. IT WAS THAT GOOD. Our host told us that this specific beef is incredibly rare and it’s not sold in many places, so I feel lucky that I even got to eat it at all.
Our relax wear that the hotel gave us.
First Course
This was already waiting for us when we walked in. The snail is on the right and on the left is cherry blossom wine with an edible cherry blossom. On the shelves are some vegetables.
This is Inaniwa udon and it’s famous throughout Japan. These noodles are thinner than the average udon noodle and is one of the three best known types of udon. The best part is that it originated in Akita!
Second Course
In the upper left corner is a deep fried fish called “hata hata,” which was smothered in a sweet sauce. Our host explained that the whole thing can be eaten as is. This was one of my favorite dishes. On the right is high quality sashimi and the bottom left is bamboo shoot.
Third Course
The star of the show! We only got 2 pieces of that heavenly beef since it’s so expensive and rare. I’m not complaining though, because those 2 bites were the best bites I’ve ever had in my life. The black stone is what we used to cook our beef and veggies.
This is a hot pot. There’s a variety of mushrooms, vegetables, and meatballs. We had a little stove on our table to boil this right in front of us.
Fourth Course
Akita is known for a food called kiritanpo, which is mashed rice formed into a cylinder shape on a stick, cut diagonally, then toasted over a hearth. These are similar to kiritanpo, except it’s not cut. Our host told us that kiru in Japanese means “to cut,” hence the name kiritanpo. He made us laugh by saying they’re just tanpo.
Final Course
Finally, dessert. A massive strawberry with ice cream made from rice. I thought it was mochi ice cream at first, but it's different. There were bits of rice in it and the ice cream was sitting on top of a caramel sauce. I really enjoyed it, the rice was a nice surprise. There was also a little piece of matcha cake with some sweet red bean inside.
Leaving
After sitting in the private bath all night, it was time to leave. I was pleasantly surprised once again before we left. Our host walked us out, but before we walked to our car he stopped next to a barrel that was being filled with onsen water from the hotel. To my surprise, he lifted one of the baskets out of the water to reveal…eggs! He said they were “complementary eggs” that were boiled by the onsen water and then gave us two. I wasn’t expecting this at all so it was quite an amusing experience. Once we got to our car, our host handed us an envelope with money in it. He explained that it’s for the car wash since our car got dirty going up the mountain roads. The service of this place is really out of this world!
You can see the eggs just under the surface of the water.
500 yen for the car wash. This is a little under $5.