This ryokan is located in Minakami, Tone Districut of Gunma Prefecture, underneath the great Mt. Tanigawa. Being part of the famous Relais & Chateaux group which features some of the most gorgeous hotels in the world, the ryokan had in fact won the 2016 World Luxury Hotel Award in the Luxury Hideaway Resort category.
After parking our car we walked through a grand entrance, greeted by the staff in the traditional Japanese fashion. While seated at the lobby for registration, we couldn't stop gaping at the beautiful garden outside, looking out from the full-height windows, and also seeing the majestic Mt. Tanigawa in the distance.
When it was ready and the staff showed us to the room, we again were struck by the amazing design of the ryokan. The Curved Corridor, extending from the lobby all the way to the guest rooms, had an extremely high ceiling (8m), with a glass wall on one side allowing the full view of the garden, and even on the walls there were a lot of fine details.
The wall was made from local Gunma clay containing straw, fibers and chips of iron oxide, with beautiful calligraphy of sketches and characters, depicting the four seasons in space and time, designed by the famous Nobuko Kawahara.
At regular intervals there were also some recesses designed to resemble the tokonoma, with the garden showing on the backdrop just like the painting. A smart way to make use of the environment and highlighted the attention to the details.
Our room was the Special Room 108, hakunage, meaning surreal in Japanese. It was the most secluded and best room of the ryokan, and was featured in a lot of local magazines and design books. The wooden sliding door made me stop to admire the craftsmanship before going in.
The room was really huge, with the two main rooms of 12.5 and 8 mats respectively. There was also a smaller tearoom where it got a copper pot sitting on a stove for heating water, and adjacent there was a cabinet displaying a number of tea-cups of great crafts.
In addition, there were a pantry, two toilets, a make-up room, a bath/sauna room and an outdoor hotspring bath. It was my first experience of having our own sauna in the room.
The outdoor hotspring bath was constructed with stones. The size of the bath was one of the largest I ever experienced as well, easily able to accommodate 5-6 people. The bath was looking out to the Tanigawa River.
Outside the room is the private garden, basically
surrounding the whole room, with one side overlooking the river flowing, and
looking up we can see the majestic mountains. There is also a pavilion which we
can sit and enjoy the fresh air outside. There are lots of greens, highly
comforting and soothing, and I can imagine if we come in winter with the
snow outside the view would be breathtaking.
Before dinner we decided to take a bath. Honestly I have
been to quite a number of onsen but the water of Tanigawa Onsen is one I truly
recommend, especially for those who like to have a silky skin. When I finished
I can feel my skin much more supple and smooth. Before I always think those
wordings were just exaggeration or marketing, but personally I did experience
it this time. Amazing power of the spring water.
Going to the restaurant for dinner, once again we witnessed
the wonders of the ryokan. The sliding door of the restaurant was a piece of
art, made by artisans from Niigata using cypress, cedar and zelkova. The
corridor features a lot of bamboos with candles inside, and on the walls are
all calligraphy. We were then led to our private room, which has a different
style, reminiscent of a western cottage instead, with stone walls and wooden
tables. The dining room also has full-length windows looking to the river
outside.
The lady serving us came from Taiwan, who likes Japanese
culture so after graduating from university, she decided to come to Japan to
work. And thanks to her we also can communicate in Mandarin to better
understand the dishes and ingredients, helping us to better appreciate all the
wonderful food we were having, even though the ryokan had prepared us a English
menu.
The appetizer has a salad of water shield, watermelon
radish, pea, yellow tomato, with Kuruma shrimp and abalone. All the vegetable
came from the nearby area and were extremely fresh, and the seafood are also
wonderful. At the same time there is corn soup and deep-fried artichoke, which
are creamy and sweet for the former, and crispy for the latter. To further
freshen up there is the yolk vinegar which is quite interesting in taste, as
well as a vinegar jelly having a good bite on texture.
Next is the soup, with sea urchin on top of a bean soymilk
tofu, and the soup prepared using Japanese wild ginger and wasabi. The tofu was
soft and silky, and the delicate flavors did not mask or affect the taste of
the sea urchin. The soup is also full of flavors.
The sashimi has three different types of fish. One is the
rainbow trout Ginhikari, the premium type of fish of the area that you would
only see in the best restaurants. The other two were Amberjack and Splendid
Alfonsino which are great in taste and texture.
Then came the seasonal dishes, including
Fried Sweetfish Marinated with Vinegar Sauce and Burdock
Root, Grilled Char with Japanese Pepper Bud, Hawasabi-sushi
Wrapped in Oak Leaf, Boiled Giant Elephant Ear with Sesame, Broad Bean Dumpling
and Pickled Ginger. Featuring the seasonal fish and vegetable, this
highlights the belief of the chef to bring the best available, in-season ingredients
to the cuisine.
Next is the Kaga-area Cucumber, Eggplant, and Crab with
Arrowroot Starch and Needle-shaped Ginger. Another delicate dish, this offers a
healthy portion of seasonal vegetable, complemented with crab meat.
The chef then brought us two pieces of Gunma Beef Sushi. The
quality of the beef was good, not those crazily fat which I don't like,
and because it was torched so the extra oiliness also got drained off. When I
asked why we had this extra dish the staff told me the sushi would only be
prepared by the chef for the premium guests. How honorable I immediately felt!
The main dish was Joshu-beef Roasted with Sansyo-Japanese
Pepper, served on a hot stone to keep the beef warm and also for cooking. On
the side there is Potato, Cabbage, Maitake Mushroom and Asparagus. The stone
allowed us to grill the beef to the level that we prefer, and also keep the
beef at the right temperature. Even though it was not overly fatty, for me it
is still a bit too much. But in terms of the flavor intensity it was certainly
very good.
Wrapping up it was the traditional Rice but the variety of
the rice was special, using the Minatsukiyo type which is famous. The local
vegetable soup and pickles are also tasty and I easily finished two bowls of
rice in no time.
On dessert it was Yogurt Ice and Fruit. There is a nice
tartness of the yogurt ice that helped to cleanse the palate, with the fruit
finishing our enjoyable evening.
Returning to the room we found that the ryokan had prepared
some midnight snacks for us so we could eat them later. I thought that was a
nice and touching service. The futon was also being set up already.
Waking up early in the morning we went to the public bath to
take a look. It was quiet, nice but the size of the bath might be a bit small.
But considering there is only 18 rooms in total, and each
having onsen bath, there are in fact less people would go to a
public bath.
Returning to the restaurant for breakfast, it again
demonstrated the wide range of food, from the more typical pickled vegetables,
the toasted seaweed, to the sweetfish and steamed pork strips, all of them were
tasty and of the right portion size. Not getting us super full nor very hungry.
With only 18 rooms in total, the ryokan was reasonably
priced, with the room and meal costing us $6,800 for two. It is definitely
one of my recommended ryokans in Gunma. A great feat but I wasn't
surprised after personally experiencing everything.
My overall score is 8.3 out of 10.
As recommended by the staff, we also had the Geoduck in Celery Soup. There are four pieces of good-sized geoduck, cooked by soaking in a stock made from Chinese celery and pickles. Through this way the freshness and sweetness of the geoduck is nicely showcased in the dish without being dominated by other flavors of the sauce/soup. There are also some vermicelli in the soup which are tasty absorbing the flavors of the soup.
The last dish was a signature of the restaurant, the Baked Oysters in Port Sauce. The oysters were deep-fried first to give a firm texture, and then it was baked with onion, wrapped in tinfoil. Because folded in the tinfoil, the juice of the oysters were retained and when eating the oysters it was suggested to add some of the juice back to the oyster to add flavors. No wonder this is one of the best dishes of the restaurant.
