Day 4. Shirogane Onsen 白金温泉

Even though the destinations of my train rides are mostly big cities, whenever I can I would stay in some resort area a bit separated from the city. Because that way, for the same amount of money, instead of some crummy city hotels, I can find nice and (usually but don't count on it, remember this is Japan) spacious holiday resorts.

I had bought the train ticket to Furano and made rental car pickup reservation there also. Furano was made famous by the long run TV serious "From the Northern Country 北の国から". But checking my guide book I couldn't find any satisfactory hotels in Furano. Instead, on the way to Furano there lies a Shirogane onsen which seems to be quite popular because of the number of hotels listed on the book. So I changed my mind and got off at Biei which is the only station that has public transportation to Shirogane onsen.

The onsen area was better than I thought. Most so-called resorts areas are pretty much a collection of hotels but nothing else, this place, however, has a great valley with a water fall running along side of it. On the side of the valley there was a hotel whose rooms were lit by beautiful amber lights. I could see a narrow winding trail leading from the hotel down to the valley. At the bottom there was an open-air onsen, obviously reserved exclusively for the guests staying in this hotel. The whole scene was like a picture.

If I had known about this I would have chosen this hotel, but when I called the hotels over the phone, it seemed that this hotel wasn't as nice as the one I ended up with. Well the lesson is "seeing is believing", if there is no hurry to make dinner reservation, next time I would delay the decision until I see the place.

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