We Eat, We Drink, We Hike, We Bathe:

Ten Thousand Travels Japan Hot SpringTours

I’m standing knee-deep in the bath at Yama Mizu Ki, a hot spring onsen just outside the town of Kurokawa, and I’m gazing at my toes. Ripples obscure my view, then subside and my toes come back into focus. Slight breeze, the rush of the river alongside the bath, fellow bathers chatting. But nothing disturbs my quiet mind. I could gaze at my toes for eternity. 

It’s a moment I keep coming back to, this toe-gazing tranquility. I wish Americans bathed as the Japanese. But lucky for us, each fall Ten Thousand Travels allows us to experience the breadth of Japanese bathing, culture, food and drink during three inspired tours.

This is how it goes: We drive, we train, we eat, we bathe, we eat, we hike, we bathe, we eat, we drink, we bathe, we drink, we sleep. Along the way, we wander World Heritage Sites, like Yamadera Temple, the temple of 1400 steps. We hike a wooded circuit from onsen to onsen, trek, bathe, eat, trek some more. We gather for a rustic dinner of local mountain mushrooms, firm and squishy, in soup and roasted over our own fires. We bathe like the locals in community centers, with the grannies gossiping and the babies boldly ogling the foreigners. We indulge in the grand rotenburo in the ski resort of Zao, and get lost hiking in the fog on Zao Mountain as the first snow falls. That’s the Northern tour.

On the Alps Tour, Takaragawa Onsen spoils us with natural beauty: outdoor rotenburo hot pools nestled beside the river, fall leaves cascading and floating around us. We pass through Niigata’s Echigo-Yuzawa train station, with its farmer’s market, small cafes, sake tasting and sake onsen (really, we bathed in sake). In beautiful Nozawa, host of the 1998 Winter Olympics, we wander from public bath to public bath, each with its own miraculous cures: for rheumatism, for skin diseases, for lovesickness. Here, the locals cook their food in the onsen waters (don’t miss the steamed buns and onsen eggs). In Shibu, more public baths where the water is hothothot. And then there are the snow monkeys, and the people gawking at the snow monkeys.

The Southern tour has a flavor all its own. In charming Yufuin, on the island of Kyushu, we wander the artsy quarter, with its elegant sake shop and Chagall museum, and soften in ultra-high-end hotel onsen with views of Yufu-dake rising high above the steamy valley. In Kurokawa, we sample the baths on either side of the river: a cave bath, traditional barrel baths–even the public baths are nice here. We land in Kyoto, beautiful Kyoto, with more shrines and temples per square foot than anywhere on earth (or so it seems). 

And everywhere, the sake. Travel with sake goddess, Deborah, and you find your taste. The food: from the expansive fall-flavored kaiseki dinners, the Shabu King with his amazingly marbled beef, sliced thin as rice paper–to simple “things on sticks” in cozy bars, meals leave us satisfied, and grateful to our hosts. 

Ten thousand memories gathered two weeks at a time. I wish I could say I was satisfied with each of the Ten Thousand Travels tours, but all three have left me wanting to return again and again. 

––––many thanks to Martha Johnson Cook, professional bather/repeat traveler on Waves Tours.

My trip was extraordinary, phenomenal, fabulous and all other adjectives of similar ilk. 

 

Kaz-san and Deborah-san – thank you for the gift of Japan.  Thank you for your extraordinarily helpful council and thoughtfulness, my perfectly suited and arranged custom components, your exceptional tried-and-true itineraries and also my privacy.  Thank you also for your high standards.     

My trip was magical. Thank you.

–– from Jane, three-tours in a row champion 2014

I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for one of the greatest adventures of my life. Most of my past adventures have had life-threateing elements, but this one was characterized by life-luxuriating experiences. Thank you for all of the careful planning, thoughtful consideration of my needs, and the tremendous organization that made each step flow like a Japanese stream. Something tells me I’ll be reading your next trip offerings very seriously. Again, thank you for making this such a joyful experience. Best, Laura, 2014