Took a short trip to Hakone with Shige. A time to relax and soak away stress in a nice hot spring. We stayed in this old inn, Kansuiro, that was about 100 years old, dating back to the Taisho era. In fact one of the Taisho emperors daughter stayed here for rehabilitation. The picture above is from our room, which was called "Maki" after the giant tree that stands in the court yard outside the room.
Of course the main reason to be at this inn was to enjoy the hot spring. The inside bath was very rustic. The tile in the bath was all imported from Germany probably during the Meiji era. There were three stained class windows also, one above the entrance to the mens bath, one outside the womens bath, and one that we saw on the outside that was probably on the outside of the womens bath.
The inn has a lot of character and there could be a lot more done to make it even nicer. Over the years there have been many additions some good and some very haphazard. I would have loved to ripped out the tacky florescent lighting in the beautiful 100 year old ceiling of the lavish hall on the 4th floor. Luckily or unfortunately that room didn't seem to be used to much. Stuck back in a back room that wasn't in use either was a very 60's style bar, that I would loved to have taken a crow bar to, it was right outside the beautiful new stone sauna, and would have been a great space for relaxing after the sweating in the sauna.
One great addition was the rotenburo, or open air hot spring. It was really nice and the water that runs 24hrs. was very soft and soothing. All the baths are open around the clock, so of course besides the soak upon arrival and the soak after dinner, there was the 4 in the morning soak where I took this picture below.
And because of the late hour I took the opportunity to soak in the women's bath also, I'd post that picture too but I need to do some touch up on it so you don't... well just say the water was very clear.
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