I Go To Kinosaki Hot Spring Resort

Onsenji Temple :Niou-Mon Gate

Onsenji-Temple : Yakushi

Onsenji-Temple : Yakushi-Do

No visit to Kinosaki Onsen is complete without a stop at the historic Onsenji Temple, known as the guardian temple of the hot springs.

Famous for its 7 hot spring baths, Kinosaki Onsen is a classic Japanese town with 1,300 years of culture and tradition.

Ichino-Yu

Left : Ichino-Yu

Visitors can be found strolling leisurely throughout the town in yukata (cotton kimono) and wooden sandals.

These yukata-clad onsen goers add to the traditional atmosphere of this town.

I Drop By Gunma Prefecture on A Way Back Home

After spending more than a weeklong trip in Hokuriku area, we took a route from Fukui to Gunma via Nagano.

We stayed one night at Sarugakyo hot spa resort. 

Since the village was covered with cloud, we were not able to see Mt. Tanigawa.

While taking pictures, I felt that Lake Akaya and surrounding moutains looked more exotic and beautiful, thanks to the cloud, than it would be.

The dinner was traditional Tofu kaiseki with local ingredients.  

Outdoor baths were very nice in the forest. 

I Go to Kusatsu Onsen, Hot Spa Resort

My wife and I stayed at "Kusatsu Village Hotel" in Gunma prefecture. The hotel was deep in the forest. We walked around the forest in the morning, even it was raining.

There was a pond near the hotel, blooming beautiful flowers. 

I Go to Toyokan Hotel

I went to Toyokan Hotel in Ashikaga city. 

The baths there had cold spring with lots of  mineral especially, it was said, silicic acid. They boiled the water up to about 40 degrees Celsius for visitors.

They displayed Jizo statues and paintings everywhere in the hotel.

A Jizo is Buddhist guardian diety of a child.

I Go to Kitsuregawa Hot Spring and Renkouin Temple

 

I went to Kitsuregawa hot spring the other day. 

Unexpectedly, my wife and I found a temple called Renkouin near the hot spring house.

We walked in the temple and found two statues of Buddha and others. 

The lotus seeds grew beautifully in the garden pond.