Mimi's Memorandum: May 2017

Mount Fuji during Sunrise

One of the highlights of visiting Japan is Hotel Konansou Yamanashi (“Konansou”), ryokan. A ryokan is a traditional Japanese inn that serves travelers along the highways. They have tatami-matted and Western rooms, communal baths and other public areas where visitor wear a yukata.

It was a tough decision to choose the perfect ryokan. It was either Konansou or Kozantei Ubuya. After my research, I found out that Kozantei Ubuya does not offer hot springs open air bath, therefore we chose Konansou. Unfortunately, we were not able to book the same room at Konansou. We had to book the Mountain View and Lake View with open air bath traditional room on separate days.

We took the express highway bus from Shinjuku station. Reservations were made in advance due to Golden Week (first week of May). You can make reservations from this website, http://highway-buses.jp/. The bus ride took less than 2 hours to arrive at Kawaguchiko Station.

Check-in time is 3pm. We arrived early and were able to drop off our luggage. They were able to transfer our luggage to our room. We had a few hours before check-in time. The receptionist was able to call the Ide Sake Brewery for tour reservation.

The Mountain View traditional room was magnificent. Mt. Fuji was in the center of the room. Our futons were laid out in center of the room as well. When you wake up, you can see Mt. Fuji directly. Our air bath was located outside on the right side of the view. The table and chairs were on the left side of the room.

When you checked in, a room keeper entered the room to discuss about the ryokan rules. While she serves you tea, she will let you know the facilities that Konansou has to offer and give you handouts. We have to change to our yukata to use their facilities.

Here’s our view of the first room:

The Mountain View traditional room includes breakfast. Breakfast is a buffet style. It is combination of Japanese and Western food. The food is very delicious, but the selection is limited. The breakfast items does not change every day. Here are a few pictures of food:

Our Lake View includes breakfast and dinner. The view is not as stunning like the Mountain View. There were bugs on the Lake View side. We had more shade in the Lake View.

We paid extra (about 3,500 Japanese yen) for the private onsen. We were in an enclosed bath and the windows are fogged up with the Mount Fuji view. It was not worth the money. My husband got sick from this because he did not let his body adjust to the hot springs temperature.

The public onsen are separated by gender and each person has to follow Japanese rules to keep the public onsen clean. Since we have our open air bath, we forego the public onsen.

For dinner, we had kaiseki, a must try culinary experience. It is multi-course Japanese dinner that is made up of beautifully plated dishes. It is so beautiful that I do not want to eat it. There is a standard order to eat in kaiseki. Your room keeper will let you know. Usually, kaiseki costs around $50 to $200 per person, but it came with our Lake View room and breakfast. Their kaiseki changes every day depending on the availability of the ingredients.

Overall, if we had two nights with the Mountain View, it was worth the expense.

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