Research for Japan: Part I (Ito Onsen)

I must say, I should start my own bloody tourist agency.

Now we are preparing for our Japan trip, which pretty much means I am preparing for our Japan trip. And when I think of MY dream holiday in Japan, all I really want is to soak in ONSEN and eat yummy SASHIMI all the time.

First, we had to settle our accomodation, which we did in October for our stay from 21 to 28 December. Yes! Xmas in Japan. So what I did was to take the best short-cut to the best deals in a country you've never visited and do not have any interest in researching: ask someone who knows.

Thank goodness for (my colleague) Novene. Everyone should have a Japanophile for a friend.

So Novene found me some onsens in Atami, (also known as Hot Ocean in Japanese), it's in Shizuoka Prefecture, not too far from Yokohama (where we will be travelling from). Everyone mostly goes to Hakone, but the prices are too steep. We are going to Yokikan Ito Onsen, which is in Ito, a few local train stops from Atami. Our ryokan looks like this

We should expect to soak in this:

At night, the onsen is open too. This open air one is unisex. Yes, that means naked men and women.


Total for 2 nights, 2 people with breakfast and dinner in a traditional Japanese room = S$943

Of course, I had to research the transportation aspect of our trip. You can get precise train times, train types, rail lines, train names, distances and travelling time here. It's fantastic. I spent 2 hours yesterday putting together 4 options to get from Yokohama to Ito, complete with maps and directions.

There's really no need to get a Rail pass which will set us back over $400 each. The ticket from Yokohama to Ito (by normal Japan Rail, not shinkansen) is 1260 yen ($26) with one transfer at Atami. The most expensive is the direct KODAMA (bullet train) which is over 3000 yen cos you pay basic fare + super-express surcharge.

We have plenty of time anyway. The journey by slow and cheap option is slightly over 2 hours.

My itinerary is starting to look like 4 page manual on what to do, where to go and how to get there.