CallieKaylee goes to ...

Japanese hot spring, known as onsen has always been one of my favourite activities in Japan. Tried the Korean jjimjilbang 찐질방 and public hotspring in Taiwan but nothing beats the Japanese onsen, especially the outdoor ones. Initially I thought there won't be time for onsen this time since it's a Tokyo city tour trip, but as soon as I read about DHC Akazawa Day Onsen House, again, I knew I had to go.

So let's say bye to Kawazu and head to 伊豆高原 Izu Kogen Station! Go go~

Btw, most stations has their stamp so if you're interested to collect them, just ask the railway staff in the station! I think Neko might be the mascot of Izu prefecture or just the Izu Kyoko Line coz all stamps were based on the cat and the whole train has lots of kawaii cat wallpaper!

DHC Akazawa Day Onsen House 赤沢日帰り温泉館

Source: https://top.dhc.co.jp/akazawa/onsenkan/

赤沢日帰り温泉館 is run by DHC, a Japanese cosmetic company, providing onsen facility at an

affordable price. This view is why I die die want to go for their onsen. Their open-air bath with first-class view of the sea. When you dip into the bath, the bath seems to be connected to the sea, providing the effect of an unlimited pool. Imagine dipping in the hot bath but cold wind blowing on you, that feeling is just amazing!

The entrance.

First thing you see, the shoe locker.

My new boots!

On your left, the vending machine to purchase the ticket for public bath.

I think it was 1600 yen per entry on a weekend.

It is an absolute no-no to use camera inside so no more photos. Plus I would want to enjoy my time in there. The 1st floor (ground floor) also has a restaurant and an omiyage corner where you can purchase Izu products and some DHC products. 2nd floor is where the resting area is, with drinks and ice cream vending machines.

The 3rd and 4th floor are used alternatively for the men and women public bath. The women bath was on the 3rd floor on that day that we went. There are lockers inside for you to store valuables, shelves and basket to place your clothing and a vanity section to use after your bath. There is no need to bring anything else because all toiletries will be provided, from towels, shower caps to all DHC beauty product to take care of your skin and hair.

After you leave the dry area, you will step into the world of onsen.

Oh ya, I forgot to mention that you have to take everything off in the locker area - fully naked. You only bring along a small hand towel with you!

First, go and take a shower to clean yourself before entering the bath. I'll normally start with a dip in the indoor pool before heading outside.

My fav outdoor onsen!

How to get there

Get off at Izu Kogen station and catch the free shuttle bus. It takes roughly 10- 15 minutes to get there. There are two exits at the station, walk towards the one with many restaurants (or simply ask the railway staff) where you can find shuttle buses offered by a few different hotels or ryokan, Be sure to take the bus offered by DHC and let the driver know that you're heading to DHC Akazawa Onsen.

Visit https://top.dhc.co.jp/akazawa/onsenkan for more information!

Kawazuzakura Matsuri 河津桜祭り

One of the earliest opportunity to witness bunch of sakura is - along the bank of Kawazu River. I was thrilled to find out about this place while researching for my Tokyo trip. I knew I was too early for the full bloom of sakura in Tokyo city but no choice, I have to match my trip with the only spring break I have. But thankfully, I found out about Kawazuzakura Matsuri and immediately set my mind to visit this place, no matter what.

Kawazu Cherry Blossom Festival is held annually from early February to early March in Kawazu, a small city in the Izu prefecture. It is also near to Atami, a city famous for Ume (plum trees) and onsen experience. I managed to find a 2-days train pass to Kawazu but it was frustrating as there wasn't much information of it in English. I think they launch similar passes every year so hopefully this will help you when you plan a short visit to Kawazu.

How to get there

We used the Minami Izu Free pass (as shown above), which includes a round trip ticket from Tokyo to Ito station and unlimited rides on Izukyoko Line that travels between Ito station and Izukyu-Shimoda Station. According to their website, this pass is sold till May 1st, 2017 but I believe similar passes are sold each year so be sure to check out the JR Izu website!

Minami Izu Free Pass

The Minami Izu Free pass is selling for 6160 yen but since we were traveling to Kawazu on the last weekend of the Kawazuzakura Matsuri period, the officer recommended us to pay extra to get a reserved seat as it can be pretty packed on the train. Fear of having to stand for 2.5 hours to reach Kawazu, we paid that extra 2190 yen to get the reserved seats.

Fact: Almost 2 million visitors are attracted to Kawazu to celebrate this early bloom of Kawazuzakura.

The reserved seats area.

Breakfast on the train of course!

If I am not wrong, the early trains tend to depart from either Tokyo station or Shinjuku station, same goes to the trains returning from Izu prefecture. We took the 8 am train departing from Tokyo station and arrived at Kawazu at 10.30 am. For 500 yen, we rented a locker to store our backpacks in the station before walking to the Kawazu RIver.

Kawazuzakura Matsuri

Once you get out of Kawazu station, turn right and walk all the way. Turn left when you see a wide street with lots of local Japanese selling their home-grown fruits, sakura-themed food, Japanese omiyage etc..

That's where the crowd is and will lead you towards the river bank.

A pretty cafe along the river.

This year, the weather turned warm much earlier than before therefore the full bloom happened earlier than previous years. We were too late for the full bloom where literally, the whole tree is pink and purely pink all along the river bank. When we got there, green leaves has already started growing so rather than pure pink, we see a blend of green and light pink on most trees ㅠ.ㅠ

Thankfully there are still a few fully pink sakura trees, so we still got some good photos there. We were lucky to be the first few to spot this tree, that means... lots of time for us to shoot.

You know when people get excited for first snow right? We are excited for the first pink sakura tree!

첫눈? 아냐.. 첫 벚꽃 나무다!

Happiness overload :D

Halfway walking, we saw this foot spa area where I thought it would be a good spot to rest our feet. But the water is super duper hot, definitely higher than 45 degree celsius.

HOT HOT!

Next up, heading to DHC Akazawa Day Onsen House and spend a night at Ito.

To be continued...

First entry on my 2017 Tokyo travelogue.

I took the earliest flight by HK Express, which was at 9 am and arrived at Narita at around 2 pm. Since I have to wait for Rene who was arriving one hour later, I took the free shuttle bus from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 and walk around at the departure hall.

The bus looks like this!

Source: https://www.narita-airport.jp/en/access/shuttlebus/

After meeting up with Rene, we bought the Narita Express or known as N'EX tickets to get to the city. The train stops at major stations like Tokyo, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Ikebukuro and etc so it's really convenient to take the N'EX. Be sure to grab the N'EX Tokyo Round Trip tickets if you are planning to return to the airport from the same station. For us, we will be heading to Ikebukuro and leaving from the same station on our last day so we got the round trip tickets for 4000 yen (saving 2040 yen!).

When you purchase the round trip tickets, you will get two tickets. Be sure to keep it safe and not use the wrong one! For the return trip, you can choose the departure time and reserve your seat at any JR East stations. It does take quite a while to get to the city, around an hour to Tokyo station and close to 2 hours to Ikebukuro station.

(Leaving Tokyo) From Ikebukuro to Narita.

With a heavy heart.

Have some combini food while enjoying the view outside.

After the 2 hours ride, we got down at Ikebukuro station and drag along our tired body and luggage towards our ryokan. We stayed at Kimi Ryokan, a traditional Japanese Inn located approximately 8 minutes walk from the West exit of Ikebukuro Station. Initially we plan to alternate between Kimi Ryokan and some other pretty hostel but staying in dormitory style wasn't that cheap given that you can have private space in Kimi Ryokan with the same price. It's a total different story if you're coming to Japan on your own, then staying in dormitory style hostels would be more pocket-friendly and you get to meet new friends!

The entrance.

We enjoyed staying in Kimi Ryokan as they offer futons instead of bed, so you can really experience the Japanese culture while staying here. We went for the room with the size of 4.5 mats, which cost us 6500 yen. At first we were quite worry that there would be queues for the use of common bathrooms and showers but not even once did we encountered such situation. Even if the shower is occupied, you can easily walk one floor up or down to use the vacant shower room.

Our 4.5 mat room.

It is also cozy to stay in the common area to enjoy food or make use of that foot massage machine (really useful coz my feet aches alot after those 10 hours of walk everyday). When we have some extra time in the morning, we will just enjoy some fruits or juice there before leaving.

Overall I did like the stay at Kimi Ryokan. Given its prime location, near to all the shopping area of Ikebukuro, I could have done more walking around the area but sadly, the trip was rather short and we have spent most time going outside of Ikebukuro. Oh well... there is always next time, TOKYO.

Back in service.

Back from reading week.

Haven't written anything on this blog for almost 2 years. There were tons of excuses behind this, be it the busy work load from academics, internship, job hunting or even just wanting to escape from being online (oh well I did play less of Instagram). The fact that I am having much more free time during this final semester at HKU and at least have secured a job in Hong Kong, I want to spend more time doing things I enjoy. So while having lunch with a friend, she encouraged me to restart on my blog again. I'm not sure how long will I be able to persist this time, but let's just try.

So being back from my vacation over the reading week. I spent a whopping 7 days with my secondary school bestie in Japan, enjoying the last bit of winter, witnessing sakura for the very first time and just being crazy together. I'm still sorting out the photos so I haven't started on the post yet. Just chilling in a cafe now, drafting this post.

It's a Monday, day 1 of back-to-school session but thankfully, I have my Mondays off, so kinda like an extra holiday. Made my way to Brew Bros, a newly-opened cafe in the neighborhood.

The cafe holds 6 tables and maybe 3 bar seats. I like the lighting and ambiance here, especially when there wasn't too many people in the morning, but the crowd starts swarming in at around 1pm. I got a table and ordered the lunch deal. Love how generous they were with the smashed avocado.

#avocadoaddict