Jozankei ryokan and onsens

A couple of months ago we decided that it would be fun to see some snow and attend the famous Sapporo Snow Festival. Rowan has been talking about snow and building a snowman for months now, so we decided to make it a reality. This festival is huge and apparently hotels book months in advance, so even a couple of months ago I couldn't even find anything in the city to book. So, I started looking out of town a little bit and we ended up in the cute little mountain town of Jozankei, known for its hot springs (which means there were onsens in all the hotels there). Alexa LOVES the snow and decided to join us (which made it even more fun because of her excitement too) and we flew up Friday afternoon, rented a car, and headed to our hotel. There was a tiny pile of snow in the parking lot at the car rental place and Rowan was so fascinated. He kept walking over it crunching it under his feet, and quickly realized how cold it made his hands when he picked it up. We had a traditional Japanese ryokan which just added to the experience, and they supplied us with these robes and slippers. It is not uncommon for hotel guests to wear them everywhere in the hotel. Our first night there, we put them on, walked around the hotel and felt right at home. 

 

View from our hotel room. There were fireworks each night and were greeted with them as we pulled up to the hotel the first night which was pretty cool.

The hotel staff sets up the futons for us each night before bed and we all slept pretty well. Boden proved to be the most difficult because unless he was asleep when we laid him down, he just wanted to crawl all over the place! The tatami mats were great for softening the falls though :)

The next morning we woke up to this gorgeous view. We had such great luck with weather our entire trip. We had sunny moments and snow, but never too hard, just enough to be "magical" :)

 The breakfast and dinner were included in our hotel and was actually really good. It was a huge buffet, a mixture of western and Japanese cuisine. On the main floor there was also a bakery with this patio outside which had a hot foot bath. It was a little chilly sitting outside, but with your feet in the water it totally warmed your body. We loved it!

And to complete our Japanese experience, we had to experience an onsen. This is a public bath and is huge in Japan. The idea seemed a little crazy to me initially, but I warmed up to the idea and decided it was something I had to try before moving home. Here's a quick overview of onsens according to wikipedia :)
"An onsen (温泉) is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsen scattered along its length and breadth. Onsen were traditionally used as public bathing places and today play a central role in directing Japanese domestic tourism.
Onsen come in many types and shapes, including outdoor  and indoor baths. Baths may be either publicly run by a municipality or private often run as part of a hotel, ryokan.
Onsen water is believed to have healing powers derived from its mineral content. A particular onsen may feature several different baths, each with water with a different mineral composition. The outdoor bath tubs are most often made from Japanese cypress, marble or granite, while indoor tubs may be made with tile, acrylic glass or stainless steel. Different onsen also boast about their different waters or mineral compositions, plus what healing properties these may contain. Other services like massages may be offered"

In essence, its a bunch of hot tubs from naturally occurring hot springs. You shower off before getting in, and then hang out naked in the jacuzzis. Sounds totally weird, but it was really relaxing and a fun experience.  You obviously can't take pictures, but I found this one online and it was my favorite, the outdoor one. I love the feeling of the freezing air in warm water!

In the end, I was so glad that we had to stay outside the city. It was the perfect compromise and I'll show more of the surrounding area in subsequent posts. I would go back again if we were staying here another year!