A Trip News

Wrapped in his yukata, Rob McFarland finds unexpected entertainment at a traditional inn.
I’m sitting at a bar in a cruise ship-style atrium wearing a dressing gown, listening to a Mexican band singing La Bamba. I’m surrounded by dozens of similarly dressed Japanese, most of whom are smiling and clapping along as if this is a perfectly normal way to spend a Friday night.
It sounds like the sort of bizarre dream brought on by too much cheese before bed. What’s weirder still is I’m not on a cruise ship, I’m nowhere near Mexico and despite La Bamba being one of my least favourite songs, I’m smiling and clapping along, too.
From the minute you arrive at Kagaya Hotel on the eastern side of Japan’s Noto Peninsula, it’s clear this is not your run-of-the-mill traditional Japanese inn, or ryokan. As our bus pulls up outside, seven staff dressed in wooden slippers and matching blue-and-white kimonos scamper outside to form a welcoming line that extends to the hotel’s front door. Inside are another 30 who bow and smile in unison as we enter the foyer. It’s completely overwhelming and I nervously wonder what on earth is going to happen next.
I’m shown to my room by a maid and here, at least, things start to feel a bit more familiar. The rooms are decorated in traditional Japanese style with tatami-mat floors and sliding screen doors. The main living area is sparsely furnished with a table, a low-backed chair, one painting and a vase, while the dressing room next door is empty but for a mirror that has been covered with a velvet throw.
Where these rooms differ from the normal accommodation you’d find in a ryokan is in size. In a crowded society where wealth used to be measured by the number of tatami mats in your home, these rooms are positively palatial.
Adjoining the living area is a dining room and there is a modern toilet and separate bathroom and shower. The only slightly jarring addition is a large flat-screen TV but, with lovely views over Nanao Bay, you’d never need to turn it on.
After showing me around my room, Rina, my ever-smiling maid, produces a cup of green tea and a Japanese summer cake - a delicious sweet sponge encased in purple jelly. Her English is excellent (she studied in Abu Dhabi), which is just as well because it takes a fair bit of tuition before I grasp how to wear and secure the traditional dressing gown-like yukata and slippers that guests are encouraged to wear.
First stop is the hotel’s onsen, or bathhouse. The hotel is in an area called Wakura Onsen, which is famous for its hot springs. The region was discovered 1200 years ago when legend claims a white heron was seen bathing in seawater to heal an injury. Since then, the Japanese have been coming here to treat all manner of ailments. The waters are supposed to be particularly good for rheumatism, gout and digestive disorders.
Kagaya’s two gender-segregated bathhouses are huge, three-level affairs with several indoor and outdoor pools as well as a sauna and jacuzzi each. There is a strict etiquette when visiting a Japanese bathhouse and despite some explanatory English signage in the changing rooms, I’m still a little bemused.
After undressing and putting my clothes in a locker, I wander around aimlessly, fuelled by a long-held view that approaching another naked man and asking him to lead me to the showers could be taken the wrong way. Eventually, I stumble across them by accident and, after a thorough all-over scrub, I’m finally ready to hit the baths.
It’s all been a bit stressful until now but as I lie back in a blissfully hot outdoor pool and watch the sun drain from the sky over the bay, I can finally see what all the fuss is about.
If you were staying at Kagaya on your own, dinner would be served in your room but because I’m here with a group, we dine in one of the hotel’s 42 private banquet rooms (the largest can accommodate 440 people). We find seven low tables arranged in a U-shape, each one already laden with an intriguing assortment of appetisers, including dried sea cucumber, sea urchin and pickled sea snail. A metal dish over a burner contains abalone that’s so fresh it’s still moving and the table is crammed with an amazing array of dishes and bowls.
Over the next two hours we’re presented with a steady stream of delicacies by yukata-clad staff who shuffle reverentially into the room on their knees. Mid-way through, we’re paid a visit by the hotel’s owner, an immaculately dressed woman who smiles regally and bows repeatedly, her head almost touching the floor.
It’s enough to make you feel like an emperor for the day and it’s no surprise to discover the Japanese royal family has stayed here on several occasions.
A variety of entertainment options are available after dinner and they’re all equally bizarre. The headline act in the Matsuri Festival Theatre is a mime artist; there’s a high-kicking cabaret act in the Hanafubuki Club and a forlorn-looking nightclub with mirrored walls and a spinning disco ball stands empty.
Which is why I gravitate to the Atrium Bar. It’s quiet and looks like it could be a temporary sanctuary from all this wackiness. And then the Mexicans turn up.
Kagaya has been voted the number one ryokan in Japan for the past 28 years. This is bewildering, given it’s about as far removed from a traditional Japanese ryokan as you can get. But I guess that’s its appeal. It’s like Vegas does Japan - crazy but compelling.
TRIP NOTES
Getting there: Cathay Pacific flies from Sydney to Japan via Hong Kong. Phone 131 747 or see www.cathaypacific.com .
Staying there: Kagaya Hotel, Wakura Spa, Nanao City, Ishikawa. Rates from about 29,400 yen a person, include breakfast and dinner. For reservations email reserve@kagaya.co.jp or phone + 81 767 62 1111. The hotel’s website is in Japanese but it will give you an idea: www.kagaya.co.jp .
Further information: www.jnto.org.au . Source: The Sun-Herald