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Kinosaki Onsen (Kinosaki Hot Spring)

In September, we visited “Kinosaki Onsen” (Kinosaki hot spring) having a history of about 1300 years and being visited by many famous Japanese writers and artists.

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We rode in a limited express train named “Konotori” (Stork) which left at 9:10 am from JR Osaka Station and reached “Kinosaki Onsen” station around noon.

The left is a map of “Kinosaki Onsen.”

 

 

“Kinosaki Onsen” station.

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We saw a bronze statue of a stork, which is a symbol of this town, when entering the ticket barrier (wickets).

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The shopping street near the JR station crossed a river (Otani river) when we walked for a few minutes from the station.

Three-story wooden buildings (which are Japanese-style hotels) stood on both sides of the Onati river, willow trees were lined along the river. Here is the center of “Kinosaki Onsen.”

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“Kinosaki Onsen” is famous for “Soto-Yu* meguri (tour).” The town has 7 “Soto-Yu” houses. If you stay a hotel in the town, you can get a free ticket for entering the 7 “Soto-Yu” houses.

*Soto-Yu: A public bath house having no lodging facility, located in a spa town.

The following photographs show the entrances of the 7 “Soto-Yu” houses in “Kinosaki Onsen.”

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A boy looked at the river, and so I also looked at the river. Gorgeous carps were swimming leisurely in the river.

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This is the “Shisho” Jinjya (Shinto shrine).

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The fine Japanese-style hotel is “Nishimuraya.”

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This is “Mikiya” at which Shiga Naoya, who is a famous Japanese novelist, wrote “Kinosaki nite (at Kinosaki).”

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As we walked along the main street of the town, we finally arrived at an old Buddhist temple, “Onsenji.” The “Onsenji” temple has precincts extending throughout the mountain, in which the Yakushi-do hall stands at the lower part of the mountain, the main hall and a two-storied pagoda stands at the middle part, and the inner hall stands on the top of the mountain.

This is “Nio-mon,” a temple gate guarded by two Nio (guardia) statues.

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The Yakushi-do hall, deifying Yakushi Nyorai (Bhaisajyaguru), had extravagant paintings on the ceiling.

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We went to the top of the mountain by cable car (Kinosaki Onsen Ropeway). It took about 10 minutes to reach the top. The gradient was so sharp!

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The view of “Kinosaki Onsen” from the top of the mountain. As you see this angle, “Kinosaki Onsen” is formed in a valley between two rivers. Sea of Japan can be seen on the left side of the photograph.

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“Onsenji” temple has the old wooden buildings (It is said that the “Nio-mon” and the two-story pagoda were built about 300 years ago, and the “Yakushi-do” hall and the main hall were built about 700 years ago), which are worth seeing.

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This is the sealed calligraphy of the Onsenji Temple.

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We toured “Kinosaki Onsen” to visit the “Soto-Yu” at night. The streetlights were lit up, the light flowed from the Japanses-style hotels, and tourists in yukata* peacefully walked along the street, this is just the atmosphere of “Kinosaki Onsen.”

*Yukata: An informal cotton kimono for summer wear

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On the next morning, we took a stroll before breakfast.

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The cycling tournament was to be held on that day.

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This road is a cherry-tree-lined path. There were many monuments on which poems were written.

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