[Hot Spring Trip] Yunishigawa Onsen ② Itoen Hotel Yunishigawa 1 Night 2 Days from 7,630 yen - Hot spring trip with a friend ♨

This is takewoody.
Last week, from Monday, 3/10 to Tuesday, 3/11,
I went on a 1-night, 2-day hot spring trip to Yunishigawa Onsen with a friend.(Approx. 2,800 characters)
The previous article is here ↓

[Hot Spring Trip] Yunishigawa Onsen ② Itoen Hotel Yunishigawa 1 Night 2 Days from 7,630 yen - Hot spring trip with a friend ♨

♨ Itoen Hotel Yunishigawa

After arriving, I completed the check-in procedure and payment at the reception, then waited until check-in time.
At this hotel, you don't get the key at check-in; you receive it at the same time as payment at the reception.
Also, although check-in is at 15:00, it was very nice that they made an announcement over the PA system at 14:30 allowing us to enter our rooms. The interior has a Japanese atmosphere and is clean.

Since I came with a friend this time, I made various reservations around the 18:30–20:00 dinner time.
Table tennis 16:00-16:50, private open-air bath 17:00-17:30, karaoke 21:00-21:50.
Table tennis and karaoke can be reserved for 50 minutes, and the private open-air bath for 30 minutes.
Since it was a quiet day, I was able to book almost all my preferred times.

♨ Japanese-style room (East Building) 12 tatami mats (no bath, with toilet)

The room was clean, and from the window, I could see the snowy mountains and the river.
Since it was on the 1st floor, it was close to the buffet venue and karaoke.
First, I changed clothes and headed to the hot spring.

♨ Hot spring (open-air bath) Basement 1st floor

The view from the open-air bath included mountains, the river, and snowy scenery.
It was reasonably spacious and there were no other people, so it was comfortable.
The open-air bath doesn't have a washing area, so it's just for soaking.
It's better to go to the large public bath first. The large public bath and the open-air bath are on the same basement floor,
but they are a bit separated and not connected,
so having to change clothes in between is a bit of a hassle.

♨ Hot spring (large public bath) Basement 1st floor

It's on the same basement floor as the open-air bath. The water quality of the large public bath is better than the open-air bath.
It is an alkaline simple hot spring with a pH of 9.2, the best water quality among Itoen Hotels,
and is called 'beautiful skin water' that makes you smooth and silky.
The atmosphere is also good, and it feels nice with hot spring deposits floating in it.
Yunishigawa Onsen is the best, even better than Kinugawa Onsen, Kawaji Onsen, and Nasushiobara Onsen.
You can't see the outside scenery, but you can see the snowy landscape from the window.

🏓 Table tennis at the hot spring inn 16:00-16:20

It feels like every old hot spring inn or hotel used to have table tennis, as they say, 'If it's a hot spring inn, it's table tennis.' There was even a movie called 'Ping Pong'.
When I think of table tennis, Olympic athletes come to mind.
Ai Fukuhara, Kasumi Ishikawa, Miu Hirano, etc.—only women come to mind.
Also, I miss the Moji-Moji-kun style table tennis from the old popular show 'Tunnels no Minasan no Okage Desu'.
You can play billiards alone, but table tennis is tough for one person.
Since I was with a friend this time, I tried playing table tennis.

It had been so long that I couldn't even remember when the last time was.
I could hit the ball, but we couldn't keep a decent rally going, and I got tired quickly, so we finished in 20 minutes.

♨ Private open-air bath 17:00-17:15

I have an image that private open-air baths are impossible to book,
but since it was a day with few guests, I was able to book it.
It's the style where you put up an 'in use' sign and lock the door from the inside.
The lock is flimsy and looks like it might open easily (lol). Well, that's fine though.
Even though it's a private bath, the open-air bath is bigger than I imagined!!
It feels special knowing no one else will come, which is nice.

Considering that a room with an open-air bath would be about 12,000 yen more expensive,
I thought it would be better to just use a regular 8,580 yen room and use the private bath.
This one also has no washing area and is just for soaking.
I couldn't stay in for 30 minutes, so I left after about 15 minutes.

♨ Dinner is a 90-minute all-you-can-eat and drink buffet 18:30-20:00

The buffet venue for meals was on the 1st floor, which was close to the room and convenient.
Since there were few guests, dinner was a single session from 18:30 to 20:00.
Other Itoen Hotels don't let you in until the time, but
here we were able to enter 5 minutes early.

And dinner included all-you-can-drink alcohol and soft drinks.
The variety of alcohol was also abundant, including beer, sake, cocktails, and sours.
As shown in the photo, the beer had about one-third foam,
so the amount of beer was a bit small, and I had two glasses.

The food content changes slightly by season, but
the basic dishes are the same menu as the Itoen hotels in Kawaji, Kinugawa, and Nasushiobara.
This season's menu featured seasonal seafood and spring vegetable tempura, but
since I ate it in Nasushiobara last week, it didn't feel fresh.

🎤 Karaoke 21:00-21:50

I haven't been to karaoke in so long it feels like forever.
There were too many songs, and I couldn't choose what to sing,
so I mostly just watched live videos of Southern All Stars and Rebecca, and that was about it.
It felt like a karaoke box with no soundproofing where you could hear the singing voices of the guests next door loudly.
After that, I went back to the room to relax and went to the large public bath one more time before bed.
Since it was a trip with a friend after a long time, we talked about many things and went to sleep just before midnight.

♨ 60-minute all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet

I woke up at 6:30 AM and fully enjoyed the blissful morning bath, both the open-air bath and the large public bath.
The real thrill of a hot spring trip is definitely the morning bath!
After that, it was time for the breakfast I was looking forward to. Breakfast was also in one session from 7:30 to 9:00.
I filled my stomach with a first round of Japanese food (photo below) and a second round (photo above) of Western food.
It might have been even more satisfying than dinner.

♨ The final wrap-up has to be a hot spring, right!

It's nice to be able to take it easy with an 11:00 AM checkout, but since the hot springs are only open until 10:00 AM,
I hopped between the open-air bath and the large public bath at 9:30 AM.

♨ Hotel checkout and heading home

Itoen Group hotels have an 11:00 AM checkout, which is nice and relaxing.
Many hotels in Japan have a 10:00 AM checkout, don't they?
Overseas, 12:00 PM is common, so 10:00 AM feels very early.

However, this time the shuttle bus after checkout was at 2:30 PM, so I had about three and a half hours.
I thought about going for a walk to the nearby suspension bridge, but it was raining outside, so without hesitation,
I chose not to go. I waited for three and a half hours on the sofa next to the lobby.

On the way back, the route was Itoen Yunishigawa 14:25 - Ichiryukaku - New Sakura - via Kinugawa Royal Hotel - 15:45 Nikko Okaki Kobo 16:05 - 17:00 Hanyu SA 17:15 - Minami-Koshigaya 18:20 - Ueno 19:20

♨ In closing

This time, it was a hot spring trip with a friend, and I was able to enjoy a different kind of fun than traveling alone.
It had been since last April in Atami Onsen that I traveled with this friend.
I usually travel alone, but it's nice to go with a friend once in a while.

Itoen Hotels Group
I have been to Ito, Atami, Kinugawa, Kawaji, Nasushiobara, and Yunishigawa Onsen,
but this Yunishigawa Onsen trip ranks number one!
The deciding factor was that the quality of the hot spring water was very good, so I want to repeat it.
I enjoyed it four times: before dinner, before bed, the morning bath, and the bath after breakfast.

Since the meals at the Itoen Group are almost all the same,
this was my third time this year, so I'm getting a little tired of them.
I suppose the dishes change somewhat as the seasons change, though...

While thinking I want to go to a different hot spring next time,
next week is my mother's birthday, so I will take her to a hot spring for a filial piety trip.
Thank you for reading until the end.
See you in the next travel article!!
See you later.

◆ Next: [Travel Video] Yunishigawa Onsen Itoen Hotel Yunishigawa 2 Days 1 Night from 7,630 yen - Hot spring trip with a friend ♨

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