Crab Overload

(The soothing foot onsen near Kinosaki Onsen station. So nice and hot!)

Where: Kinosaki Onsen, Hyogo Prefecture
When: February 24 & 25, 2008
Info: I'm sure you're all thinking - "but wait Laura, you've already been here...twice! Why are you going back AGAIN!?" Well, yes I've been here twice but Elspeth really wanted to go (maybe because I gushed about it) and I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to relax in amazing onsens and eat delicious seafood to we planned one of our famous weekend getaways.

(The swanky garden in our ryokan. They projected artwork on the back wall at night)

We got up early and caught the shinkansen to Kyoto. The weather was freezing and it was windy and snowy. Then the impossible happened...the shinkansen was LATE. GASP!! We had our connection times planned pretty close (about 15 minutes) and unfortunately didn't make it. It was the first time we missed a train....EVER!

We ended up eating udon on the platform in Kyoto Station and waiting for the next Kinosaki train. It was only 4 cars long so people started lining up early. We stood in the freezing cold for over an hour only to get on the train and find that it was freezing too. The train ride was slow and long as the snow caused this train to be late too (it had to stop at almost every station to wait!). As you can imagine, we were very happy to get off that train!


We walked around for a while, tested the foot onsen and looked at omiyage shops. Finally, it started to snow snowballs (they weren't flakes but actual tiny balls of snow) so we got the onsen bus and found our ryokan. We relaxed in our beautiful room and then used the ryokan's onsen (they had a really nice outdoor bath too). Then dinner arrived.

(As you can see, Elspeth is the master of the hand gestures. We have to do these for every vocabulary word in kids classes)

Kinosaki is famous for crab. If you mention it to anyone, the first thing they talk about is crab. We went in peak crab season and it was so delicious. We must have eaten a year's worth of crab in one meal. Everything was gorgeous. Oh, and there was no horse to be seen.

(Check out the 'crab scissors')

(Crab nabe - SO DELICIOUS)

Our ryokan lady kept bringing tray after tray of food and they all seemed to contain crab. Cooked crab, crab nabe, crab sashimi, crab tempura, crab dumplings, crab insides, crab claws, crab, crab, crab...

(This assortment was supposed to represent the various onsens in the town)

(I'm not a huge fan of crab sashimi but here it was to die for...)

(The tower of soba. I like soba but come on. Who can eat all of that other food and a tower of soba? I ended up barely finishing one plate...)

We took our time eating...making sure we got all of that delicious crab. As you can see, we did a really good job. No waste here!


The meal finished with rice, pickles, a clear soup with a crab (obviously) dumpling and some mochi with kinako. The food at this ryokan was amazing. Worth every yen...

After dinner we put on our yukata jackets and socks and rolled ourselves downstairs where we got into a 1940's era looking taxi. It dropped us off at our first onsen. We ended up going to three different onsens that night. Each had something special - one had a rock cave to sit in, another a cool waterfall and the last a nice outdoor bath. We walked through the streets in our wooden geta (damn, they hurt), looking at tiny shops and watching people play the old-fashioned arcade games that are famous in Kinosaki.

(The next morning we woke up and had a leisurely HUGE breakfast. The clear jelly looking stuff on the right was actually konnyaku. Yeah, it had the least appetizing consistency and I didn't end up eating it)

(This fish was grilled on our tiny personal grills. Very tasty. This is usually my favourite part of Japanese breakfasts.)

(This was new. A wooden box that was heated from underneath. On one side was a small warm bottle of a soy-based sauce. The other side was a small 'bath' to heat tofu. When hot enough we scooped out the tofu. Again...delicious!)

(Goodbye beautiful ryokan)

After our breakfast we headed out into Kinosaki. We checked out the fish markets and tried to figure out how much our crab dinner would have cost. As you can see from the prices in the picture above, just the crab in our dinner probably cost at least 12 000 yen for the both of us.


The weather that day was beautiful. The snowballs were gone and the sun was shining. The bridges and river in the town were perfect for pictures.

(Enjoying a little foot onsen-ing. Unfortunately, this one wasn't hot enough)

Our main mission of the morning - go back to the onsens we'd visited the night before and get their stamps. Man, we both love how the Japanese love their stamps. Here's the first onsen we went to. This one had a cool outdoor rock cave.

(Seriously, Elspeth...I am so small in this picture that you almost can't tell it's me!)

(Yup, Kinosaki has a Hello Kitty store. Elspeth did some damage. I may have helped her.)

The second onsen (my favourite). This one had the huge outdoor waterfall and baths inside and out. Wonderful!

The last one was a bit smaller but also one of my favourites. It had the nice outdoor bath.

Continuing our 'Taste all of the new ice cream flavours of Japan' tour - Kinako/black sesame soft ice cream. This store was as interesting as their ice cream was delicious. They sold beautiful bags made in the shape of traditional tied packages. If only I could have figured out how to use it in everyday life...

We had to wait for our train, and since it would take more than two hours to get back to Kyoto, we decided that we had to have lunch in Kinosaki. Darn, that meant more crab! We found an amazing restaurant and decided on a scrumptious crab and veggie tempura set.


To celebrate crab season, the town had installed huge wooden crab claws in front of the station. Yeah for a silly photo opportunity!

(Our Kinosaki crane impressions)

Each time I go to Kinosaki I have a great time. Since this was the last time, I really tried to savour the sights, sounds, tastes and especially the onsens. This is truly a town that could only exist in Japan....and I love it.