Satoyama Jujo the House

As this is a popular inn that is often featured in magazines, there were no vacant rooms with mountain views during Golden Week, but a vacancy happened to open up around the previous month, so I made an immediate reservation. It is in the southern part of Niigata, and if you take the Joetsu Shinkansen to Echigo Yuzawa, you will arrive surprisingly quickly, but there are few conventional trains from there to Osawa Station, so if you are heading there to be picked up at 14:30, your boarding time will be pretty much set. Osawa Station is a nice station with a nostalgic atmosphere and mountain scenery, but it is an unmanned station with nothing around, so you can't kill time, so I recommend adjusting your time at Echigo Yuzawa Station. As you take the shuttle bus deep into the Satoyama, you will find a surprisingly large and beautiful inn in the quiet forest, considering that it is a renovated 150-year-old traditional house. The entrance is also impressive with a high atrium with shiny black pillars and a huge mallet, which, together with the designer furniture, creates a unique atmosphere. The room was a corner suite with an open-air bath and a view of the majestic mountains such as Mt. Makihata from the large glass door at the front. Although it was a corner suite, it was quite spacious at 49㎡, but the simple wooden, horizontal space was comfortable to spend time in. There was a small cypress bath on the terrace, so you could soak in the water whenever you wanted. The large baths are switched between the left and right sides depending on the time of day, but the open-air bath on the right side in particular offered the best sense of freedom and the best view. The water around here is slippery, like the skin-beautifying waters of Osawayama Onsen, and the air is especially clear in the early morning, so it feels great to look out over the magnificent view while soaking in the water. For dinner, I went to a restaurant called SANABURI, which has a concept of local gastronomy. The restaurant serves original dishes using fresh local produce from Niigata and Minamiuonuma, and various wild plants in spring, served in beautiful dishes. I also enjoyed freshly cooked Koshihikari rice from Kome Sennin in a clay pot right in front of me. It was not a high-class meal, but rather a valuable experience that can only be had here, and I can see why it has a high rating of one star in the Michelin Guide. Because the meal time is long, there are two parts, 17:00 and 19:30, and I could choose to have a light lunch and an early lunch, or a later lunch and a later breakfast. I chose 17:00. For breakfast, I had a small variety of homemade dishes, miso soup that I made myself, and rice cooked softly in a rice cooker, which was different from dinner, and I ate it all up, just like dinner, even though the portions were not too large and the menu was not as distinctive as dinner, but it seemed healthy for my body, so I ate it all up, just like dinner. Although the staff were not particularly attentive to service, they all smiled and communicated appropriately, which I found very appealing. The short walking tour around the back mountain, which starts around 4pm, is a great way to work up an appetite before dinner, as it's a great way to hear about the countryside, ingredients, and the seasons. This inn fulfills the common wish to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and stay in nature. Some may feel that it's not luxurious considering the price, but for me, the scenery, hot springs, and food were all very satisfying. As I was able to enjoy a variety of seasonal ingredients, this inn made me want to return in a different season.