The Hotel - Yudanaka View

The hotel we stayed at was called Yudanaka View. Their website can be found here. The hotel ran about $230 a night for their cheapest room. Upon entering the hotel, the friendly staff greeted us and let us know our itinerary for the evening. The evening included dinner, kimono dressing and entertainment at night. The manager of the hotel (as is tradition) was the hotel owner's wife. She greeted us dressed in a traditional Japanese kimono. She lived and worked in Hawaii for 20 years so her English was great.

The hotel was a traditional Japanese style inn. This means the rooms have no bed, but instead the staff comes while you are at dinner and sets up traditional Japanese pads on the floor for sleeping. You also have the option of dressing in a yukata, which is like a kimono, but can be worn by men and women. Upon your arrival at the hotel, the staff helps you get into your yukata if you desire.

One of the great things about this hotel was their onsens. Onsens are large bathtubs filled with piping hot mineral water. This hotel was sourced by three natural mineral hot springs. They have a man on staff whose job it is to mix the water from the three hot springs and ensure the temperature is perfect. In order to use the onsens, you can go to the public bath area or pay extra for a private onsen on the roof. The public bath areas are segregated into male and female. Yes, you do have to be nude to be in the onsen. This is definitely weird for us Americans. John and I opted for a private roof top onsen. Once you get over the fact that you're hanging out on a roof sans clothing, it is quite relaxing. The water is so hot you never get cold even with the snow on the ground.

The rooftop onsen.

The view from the rooftop.

So relaxing!

Hot water was constantly being added.

That evening, the hotel provided us with a performer who played the Taiko drum. He also played a Japanese string instrument and dressed as a lion. You threw money into the lion's mouth and he would "bite" your head. This means good luck and health in the New Year. Typically the hotel has more than one performer, but it was Christmas, so everyone else must've been on vacation.

The Taiko drum performance.

The Lion dance.

After the traditional performances, two young Japanese men played some songs on acoustic guitar. Since the hotel is near a popular snowboard and ski location many of the guitar players young friends came off the slope to give them a hard time. The guitar players tried to speak English so the USA guests could understand....when they slipped back into Japanese, their friends shouted, "English please!"

Acoustic guitar night.

Instead of playing songs about love, betrayal and drinking, they played songs about the mountain, the flowers and Nagano city. Historically (and even today) Japanese songs and art are heavily influenced by the environment and nature rather than human emotion. They also use nature as a metaphor for their emotion. After they finished their set, an American guest serenaded everyone with some Beatles songs. After that, it was time for bed!