Sanai Kogen Hotel

We traveled through the caldera to the Kurokawa onsen area – a very popular place for onsens – or hot spring Japanese bath house. This is apparently a very famous area. We stayed at the Sanai Kogen Hotel – a large but very modest looking hotel with fabulous service. They came to pick us up at the bus stop – and took us to a gorgeous room overlooking the caldera and the bath houses. We decided to use the outdoor one – despite the cold weather. I must admit, I wore my pj bottoms under the kimono – it seemed a bit too breezy to me. Now why I worried is beyond me – the bath house is outdoors. In this delightfully cold weather, one takes a shower in a very cold room (it was inside but only because it had a roof and 2 walls) and then quickly heads outside to sink into a nice, warm, pool of water. You have your tiny little towel with you – dish-towel width and probably twice as long. This doesn’t go it the water but it serves for “modesty”. It is so cold out of the water that the towel is frozen by the time you pick it up. It crackled. Ah yes, the things we go through to experience “the nature”.
It was a nice view – you could see the volcano across the way with wisps of steam and lots of brown hillsides – it is still winter over here, and it proved it. Great sunset in the deep, dark cloudy sky. We woke up to a white landscape – with wind blown walks. Gorgeous, but rather cold. If you look at the snowy picture, on the right side you'll see the roof of a building...that's the outside onsen the place is famous for.