Ewens-Downing Adventures in Asia

Ron and I both enjoy traveling. But I thought it would be nice if during our trip we were able to get away from the big cities and enjoy more of the Japan countryside and culture first-hand. We needed to do a retreat.

At least once in our stay in Japan I wanted us to stay at a Ryukan. This is sort of the Japanese equivalent of an American Bed and Breakfast. But it is still quite different. You get served dinner and breakfest in your room. And the Ryukan visit is meant to be a restful experience for the weary traveler. They usually feature some kind of onsen (Japanese hot baths) for visitors to enjoy.

In my first trip to Japan with Broderbund Software some years ago, they took us on a multi-modal (see below) trip from Tokyo to an area called Hakone. I like to describe Hakone as being like the Russian River is to San Francisco. It is a mountain resort area not too far from the big cities of Yokohama and Tokyo.

So what is multi-modal? It is a transportation term for when many different types of transit are used in a single trip. To make our way through Hakone we will use subways, trains, mountain feniculars, overhead trams, hiking and a ferry. For such a relatively small area, that’s a lot. But it will be a lot of fun to do with Mr. Transit himself, Ron. The journey itself should always be part of the experience.

There are many Ryukan hotels in Hakone to choose from. It was really hard to decide where would be the best place to spend our Hakone one day retreat. Luckily the web came to my rescue again. I did some Google searches and found the vacation photo site of Francois Jordaan. He and his wife had thoughtfully documented their first visit to Japan, including a visit to the Hakone area. Their pictures of a Ryukan named Taiseikan looked to be exactly what I was looking for. They described it as:

“Under luxurious eiderdowns surrounded by calligraphy screens. Smooth wood beams, flawless carpentry, tatami mats… the only sound’s the roaring river outside. If it were light, and we were to slide open the screens over the window, a forested slope rises sheerly outside up to the sky. Maples and pines with calligraphic shapes frame the picture. We’re in Taisekan ryokan, in Miyanoshita (the ‘i’ is silent), near Hakone. The hotel’s like a mini-citadel nestled among trees at the bottom of a gorge, only accessible via its own private funicular railway.”

Upon reading that description and seeing the photos, I thought to myself, “That’s it!” I began browsing through the Taisekan english web site. Uh, oh… As you can see, there isn’t a lot to their English site. Now I was getting worried about this location. To be sure, I sent out an email to Francois to ask how he and his wife liked their stay at Taiseikan. I also started browsing through Taiseikan’s Japanese web site. Now this was more like it. (They use Flash, after all! Oooh, ahhhh…) I got a much better feel for what Taiseikan was about.

In less than a day I got a reply from Francois about the stay he and his wife had at Taiseikan. He said, “we *loved* the stay in Taisekan, it was one of the best experiences of our life.” With such a hearty endorsement, I was sold. After a little more browsing on the Japanese Taiseikan site I found a drop-dead gorgeous room for our stay that exceeded all of my hopes for a restful Ryukan stay.

The”Izumi House” room at Taiseikan is located next to the forest and its own waterfall. From the photos it looks like more of a stand-alone cabin. (Hmm… Just like what you would find at the Russian River.) As you can see from the photo below, this is a Japanese style room that opens to the hillside with the waterfall right there. What could be more tranquil and relaxing for our retreat? It’s perfect. Through email I booked the room for Ron and I. We would be staying just one night. But it would be very memorable indeed.

Since Taiseikan is a Ryukan we would get served dinner and breakfast in this amazing, historical Japanese environment. I have no doubts that the experience will bring Ron and I closer to the heart of Japanese culture and how to relax Japanese-style.