今回の日本滞在中に夫と温泉に行きました。どこに行こうか結構ギリギリまで迷っていましたが、夫のスケジュールの都合などを考えて、最終的に神戸から電車で１時間半ほどのところの赤穂温泉の「潮彩きらら 祥吉」に泊まりました。
My husband and I had a one night trip to a hot spring. It took me forever to decide where to go because there are so many choices, but in the end I decided to book a ryokan (Japanese style hotel), which is in Ako, which is only an hour and a half from Kobe.
I chose Shiosai-Kirara Syokichi in Ako Onsen (hot spring) for various reasons. The view from the rooms and baths is fabulous, they have a private hot-spring bath that you can book for 45 minutes just for yourselves and also their meal choices were good for us. In Japan, when you stay in these places, most of them serve you course after course of fish and seafood dishes, especially at places near the sea, and esspecially in winter. However, this hotel had a choice of tempura, which I can enjoy and my husband also enjoys.
この旅館を選んだのは、景色が良いこと、貸切の露天風呂があることも大きな理由ですが、もう１つの大きな理由は食事。２月でしたので（どの季節もそうですが特に冬は）景色の良いところ（は海沿いが多いので）は当然どこもお魚やシーフード（特にカニや牡蠣）がメインの食事がほとんどでこちらもメインは牡蠣のようでしたが、天ぷらを選ぶことができるようになっていました。わたしはもちろんなのですが、大体何でも食べられる夫も延々とお魚やシーフードが出てくる食事はあまり喜ばないので、お鍋やすき焼きや天ぷらなどを選ぶことが出来る旅館がもっと増えてくれると嬉しいのですが。
せっかく景色が良いところを選んだのですが、実は数日前には雨が降る予報でとてもがっかりしていました。ラッキーなことに当日が近づいて予報が変わり、到着した日の午前中は曇っていましたが午後からだんだんお天気が良くなり、貸切露天風呂からきれいな夕日を見ることが出来ました。（ただ、この日、風が強くとても寒かったです！）
Although one big reason was the view, a few days before we were going to go, the weather forecast said it was going to be raining and I was very sad and disappointed. Fortunately, it changed for the better on the day before. It was cloudy at first but it got much better later in the day and we were able to see a beautiful sunset from the outside bath that we booked. It was freezing cold, though!
一番お高いお部屋を取りましたが、多分お部屋自体は変わらず露天風呂がついているから高かったのだと思います。交通費があまりかからなかったのでお部屋は奮発しましたが、寒くて結局お部屋の露天風呂には入らなかったので、普通のお部屋で良かったな、とちょっと後悔しました。一番上のお部屋だったので、景色は良かったのかもしれません。
I booked the most expensive room because I thought the room would be the nicest. The train fare was very inexpensive, as it was not far away, so I thought we would treat ourselves. However, the room was pretty ordinary. The view was good because it was on the top floor but it’s not such a tall buiding (7 floors) so I don’t know if it made a big difference. I think it was expensive only because it has it’s own outside bath but we didn’t use it because it was so cold, we just used the one we could book for ourselves on a different floor and also tried the larger baths for all the customers.
食事は部屋食ではなかったのですが、わたしたちはあまり部屋食には拘りません。むしろ、椅子に座って食事ができる方が有難い。
In these sort of places, you are usually served meals in your room but this hotel serves the meals in designated private dining rooms, which we don’t mind. I actually prefer it because we were able to sit on chairs rather than on the floor.
天ぷらだけだと思っていたら、天ぷら以外にも食べきれないくらいたくさん出てきました。（飲み物は、プロセッコをオーダーしました。）どれも美味しくいただきました。ただ、次々とあまり間をおかず出てくるのでちょっとせわしない感じを受けました。サービスもベルトコンベアー式な感じで、食事の時に限らず全体的に小さな旅館の割にパーソナルな雰囲気ではなかったです。
We chose tempura and expected it to be mostly tempura but the course included lots of other dishes as well. Everything was very good. The only thing we didn’t like very much was that they served us each course without much gap in between and made us feel they wanted to have it finished quickly. This hotel is quite a small place, which is another reason why I chose it, but it didn’t feel very intimate.
写真をクリックすると拡大されます。
If you click a photo it’ll be enlarged.
翌日の朝食もすごい量でびっくり。普段朝ごはんは食べないわたしはもちろん、夫もとても食べきれない量でした。
Even breakfast on the following day was a huge spread – I don’t usually have breakfast so I wasn’t able to eat much of it.
到着した日は曇りがちでしたが、翌日は良く晴れて綺麗な海でした。お天気で同じ景色も随分違って見えます。
On the day we arrived it was cloudy so the sea didn’t look so beautiful but on the following morning it turned out to be beautiful.
到着した日のロビーからの景色。
This is the view from the lounge on the day we arrived.
翌日朝のロビーからの景色。
The next day.
帰りは赤穂城のところでリムジンバスから降ろしていただき、途中でお土産を買って駅まで歩いて帰りました。
When we left to go back to Kobe we took the hotel shuttle bus to the station but got off at the castle and walked the last bit to the station stopping at a souvenir shop on the way .
食事は良かったですしお天気も良く、夕日を見ながら温泉に使ってのんびり出来て良かったです。もう少し日数に余裕があるときには、観光もできる温泉地に行きたいと思っています。
The food was good, the view was lovely and we enjoyed watching the sunset from the bath. I would love to go somewhere we can do some sightseeing as well when we have more time.