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| Fuji views from Heda |
Most people hailed from various parts of Shizuoka prefecture, but we had some visitors from as far out as the edges of Chiba, a good four and a half hour train ride from Shuzenji station (where we then had to take the bus)!
Since check
in wasn’t until 3pm, the early birds who met at Shuzenji had a little time to
kill before we needed to set off. There’s a few restaurants around the area,
and I subtly ushered us towards 天きゅう, an okonomiyaki restaurant run by
an absolutely lovely family. A co-worker who lives a short walk away introduced
me to this spot right when I came to Japan – it was probably my first
okonomiyaki experience, so it holds a soft spot in my heart. I’m not entirely
sure of the actual meaning of the restaurant’s name “sky-something”, but if
said out loud, it’s “ten-kyuu”, which sounds like a fun play on the phrase
“thank you”!
It’s well
worth a visit – you can mix and match different flavours, and has a relaxed and
easy-going atmosphere. The restaurant is set out in a very traditional manner –
you slip off your shoes and place them in a cupboard at the door, and then
shuffle onto the tatami mats and sit on flat zabuton pillows. The owner’s daughter was quietly playing and
reading manga in the corner, and every time I go, the amount of One Piece
paraphernalia on display increases! They have several shelves and cupboards
packed to the brim with characters from the famous manga/anime, as well as
random characters gracing little corners here and there. I was rather amused by
the Compare the Meerkat windups that sat in a cove next to a plant pot, and the
inflatable ghost that was clinging onto the branches of another potted plant.
Though the
tables are equipped with okonomiyaki grills, the master whipped ours up for us,
and they came piping hot with bonito flakes curling in the heat. We feasted on
two different flavours recommended by the mama-san. Unfortunately, I got so
caught up in chatting with friends that I have no photographic evidence of this
deliciousness, so I guess it’s just something you’ll have to try for yourselves.
Although Shizuoka isn’t particularly known for its okonomiyaki, this little
spot is a great place to chow down on some eggy goodness.
The Tokai
bus runs about twice an hour, and the last bus was well before 5pm, so if you
don’t have a car, going past Shuzenji is definitely an early day endeavor. The
bus stop is right outside Shuzenji station – recently renovated to be bright
and cheerful. There’s a helpful information desk, and a 7/11 for all your last
minute travel needs. There’s also a well-stocked omiyage shop which sells some
reasonably priced manju and the like, and, should you wish to treat/torture
yourself, you can try some wasabi ice cream! If you are feeling less
adventurous, they do a good salted milk, vanilla and green tea ice cream. Some
of the flavours change seasonally, so you get a nice range. A cone will cost
¥350 for a nice soft serve.
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| Heda bus timetable from Shuzenji |
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| Worth it for this view! |
In future,
should we have less people, or more with valid driving licenses, I would
recommend hiring a car from Mishima instead. Car hire for a day is about 8,000
per person, so if you have four to a car, it’s much more budget-friendly and
even gives you more freedom of movement to explore. We didn’t have time to
venture out of the ryokan at all, but it would have been nice to have had that
option.
As it was,
the ryokan shuttle bus picked us up at Heda bus station and drove us five
minutes up a hill to the location, though it’s a lovely walk, too, albeit
dangerous (there are no shoulders, and some of the drivers prefer to drive in
the middle of the road – we had a near miss in the shuttle as an approaching
car swerved back into its own lane at the last moment).
It looked very modern
and sharp from the outside - Koyoi has a history of about 40 years, and is
marketing itself well internationally as well as to the Japanese market. Forty
years is not particularly historical compared to many of the ryokan around
Japan, but it does show that they’re thriving if they’ve lasted this long! Although
their website is only in Japanese, they’re also available on Airbnb and
booking.com. In fact, we met a lovely couple from Austin, Texas, on the bus,
who were travelling Japan for two weeks. They had found the place through
Airbnb, and we chatted and discovered that we were all headed to the same
place! I was surprised to meet people who didn’t live in Japan yet had heard
about Izu, as the other places they were headed to (Kyoto, Hiroshima) were much
more on the international map. It’s nice to see Izu getting the recognition it
deserves, though, even if it’s a little out of the way.
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| View from the lobby |
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| Picture taken from www.booking.com |
Upon
arrival, we were sat down and given a quick rundown of the hotel’s layout in
the lobby, which overlooked Suruga Bay. It contains a long bar in front of the
ceiling-to-floor window, and a large natural wood table, so it’s a nice place
to relax outside the rooms. The view was fantastic – something that photos
can’t really capture, as the lapping waves simultaneously hypnotize and calm
guests into staring at it for ages. The lobby itself had a selection of wine
(charged to your room via a handy swipecard), with free, unlimited tea, coffee
and whisky, as well as some cheese and chocolate squares. The drinks were all
available until midnight, which we took full advantage of. We also got a welcoming
cup of cold green tea and a red bean sweet to snack on before getting the keys
to our rooms and swapping our wafuku
for the traditional yukata.
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| Photo from www.rakuten.co.jp |
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| Yukata and kaiseki |
All the
couples on the trip had their own rooms, and we then had a girls and boys room,
which both could have comfortably fit 8. The rooms themselves were minimalist
tatami-style, and the ryokan gave us the options of making our own futons, or
having it done for us. Of course, being the lazy bums we are, we all opted for
the staff helping us out. The prices for the couples’ rooms were 14,770 yen per
person, and 14,300 for the shared rooms. All the rooms had clean, basic
bathrooms attached. You don’t need anything fancy at a ryokan – the point is to bathe in the onsen, rather than in your rooms.
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| Two-person room |
Another
draw to Koyoi was the private onsen,
two rooftop rotemburo with fantastic
views. Each tub fits two people nicely – three is pushing it, and can be booked
for 45 mins on the hour, from 6am all the way until 11pm at night (the fifteen
minute gap is for the staff to clean the area between bathers). You book,
procure the key from the reception, and head up to the top floor. The two
choices are between a view of Suruga Bay, and Mount Fuji. There’s a tiny area
well-stocked with towels and a tap, so after stripping down, you can step
straight outside and revel in the freedom of heighty nudity. There is only one
shower tap, so you’ll have to take turns rinsing off before stepping in tub,
although if you really want to jump straight in you could prepare by going to
the main onsen on the lower floors.
Then, settle down and enjoy the view! I’m a big fan of outdoor onsen, and this cosy little rotemburo hit all the spots.
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| Picture from www.rakuten.co.jp |
All too
soon, it was time for dinner, and we were placed in a private room, again with
a fantastic view of the sea. That night, we were treated to a sunset like never
before – it changed every minute, and we couldn’t keep our eyes off it. It
started out as a cloudy blue-grey, but soon the horizon was streaked with
autumnal shades, shifting subtly across the sky every time we turned to look.
Good ryokan
usually offer half board (breakfast and dinner) with the overnight stay. If you
don’t go to a ryokan, getting this particular style of food is limited to very
special restaurants, as it’s very service intensive. We had a delicious,
multicourse menu, presented as small bites of a variety of food. This is known
as kaiseki ryori, and is something akin to haute
cuisine in western spheres. Kaiseki
courses are generally separated by cooking method, with each dish representing
one of the methods. You’ll get a selection of some of the methods, depending on
the chef’s preference and the season/what produce is available.
We began
with a kanpai using the sweet
aperitif (Shokuzen-shu) with the
meal, an orange sweet liquor, and sampled the appetizers – a sazae, small selection of sashimi, fried
aji fish, and other little bites.
After the
starters, we were presented with the otsukuri,
a sashimi course. We were given a
basket overflowing with white radish (daikon)
and a selection of fresh sashimi. Some weren’t too keen on the crunchy abalone,
so I sneakily polished that off for them.
The grilled
dish (yakimono) was beef, served in a treasure-chest of bamboo, wrapped in a
leaf. We burned many fingers in unwrapping the dish, but we were rewarded with
perfectly cooked beef in to soothe our scorched digits.
We also got some vegetable tempura, with a salt seasoning.
We also got some vegetable tempura, with a salt seasoning.
Nigiri
sushi, with grated tororo.
The
restaurant was accommodating with substitutions, as we had vegetarians and
non-beef eaters too. The non-beef got a straightforwards fish head!
The final
part of a kaiseki meal revolves around rice, miso soup and pickles. It’s always
served toward the end of the meal before dessert. Instead of rice, we sampled
some soba in what looked like a snake basket. Heda’s reknowned for its crab, so
the star ingredient of the miso was, of course, the beclawed crustation. There
are some great restaurants in Heda itself that I must dedicate some time to
writing about soon; I’ve visited one with a pool inside the restaurant where
they literally lift the crab out of the water and in half an hour – it’s on your
plate.
If you’re a
fan of desserts, kaiseki is not the
way to eat. The focus is on small bites and natural flavors, so you won’t get
rich cakes or puddings. Instead, we were presented with two cubes of delicate
Mishima-grown watermelon, and earl grey sponge cake. They were gone in two
bites (and one ambitious eater downed the whole thing in one… no names, but he
knows who he is)
Post
dinner, some ladies and I decided to take another dip, in the main onsen this
time. We shed our yukata, placed them
in the baskets available and rinsed off (again) before sampling the hot
springs. We could hear the burble of chatter from the men’s onsen, but it was
impossible to make out what was actually said. We mischievously bad-mouthed
some of them at a loud volume from the ladies’ rotemburo, but they didn’t hear
us. There were only two baths, but large enough to fit a good ten of us in
each, and we gossiped and steamed away like siu
mai. Although a lot of people feel shy at first in the onsen, I’ve always
felt it’s a great way to get to know people better. You can’t hide anything,
and honestly, being naked with friends is excellent for body image – you
realise that everyone is different, and beautiful. The outdoor rotemburo is
shielded with a one-way mirror for those who worry about peeping Toms, and to
be honest, any chikan (pervert) would have to
work hard with a pair of binoculars from very specific spots to see anything
anyway!
As always
with a large group, we adjourned for snacks and drinks once squeaky clean,
first in the lobby, and then later in the gents’ shared room. There were only
two large rooms per floor, so we gaijin
were the only ones around and we didn’t get any noise complaints. We were up
until two, drinking, chatting and playing card games. Sunrise was a mere few hours
away, so I was a grumpy bunny by 5.30am, when the sunshine was strong enough to
wake me from sleep. Note to self: use curtains! That said, the weather held out
fantastically over the weekend. It’s absolutely belting down as I write, and
the weather forecast for the entire week is somewhat gloomy, so we went at
exactly the right time. The great thing about ryokan is that the weather is
moot with regards to bathing, but it certainly makes the view a lot more
enjoyable!
Check out
was an early 11am, so after breakfast, I hurried back to the onsen for a final
dip. I luxuriated for as long as possible before throwing everything into my
rucksack five minutes before checkout. Then, we took a leisurely stroll down
the hill to Heda town’s bus stop, and wound our way back up the peninsula. From
then on, people scattered in various directions, though I managed to net some
wayward guests and lure them to my house with promises of tea and coffee.
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| Wasabi grater |
All in all,
Koyoi have excellent support staff – from the friendly, Yokohama-born driver
who picked us up from Heda and smiled from ear to ear, to the elegant head
receptionist whose clear English comes from years working as an air stewardess
for a Japanese airline. All the staff were able to say basic phrases and
explain the food to us, which was much more than I expected in a traditional
ryokan, in Izu, no less. During meals, they gave us the names of dishes and
motioned the correct way to season and eat them, and we were able to enjoy our
time even more easily than had they spoken only Japanese (which would have been
more than fair, considering that we were in rural Japan. Or in fact, in any
part of Japan.)
Our only complaint was that they forgot to tell us that we had
a 1000 yen credit towards the wine bar, and only informed us the following
morning! None of us are alcoholic enough to be drinking at 10am, so that was a
little annoying, especially considering we had asked them the previous night if
there were any drinks with our meals. Nor did they refund the money, and we had
to ask if they would credit us should we return. I’d be happy to go back, but I
enjoy exploring new places far more, so it will be a while before I return.
Other than that blip, though, I was very satisfied with the service offered.
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Website: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5301513 - check out their cheeky "University of Onsen" profile! I'd have a Nandos with that sense of humor any day.
Ease of access:
5/10. Simple to get to, but requires time and patience, and often a strong
stomach.
Rooms and
service: 7/10. Clean, roomy, comfortable.
Onsen: The
general onsens are nothing out of the ordinary, but the private rooftop onsens
are amazing – 8/10
Price: between
14-15,000 per person.
Food: 8/10
– great kaiseki food, some hit and misses with flavour but generally delicious
Overall rating:
8/10
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