Quiet Luxury in Shibata

My suite at the Tsukioka Onsen resort is a small-scale, modern approximation of the summer homes where samurai once retreated for periods of quiet contemplation. The outer perimeter of the room is a lounge area, equipped with two refrigerators -- one just to chill glasses -- and a small heater to warm oshibori hand towels, with a view of Shibata city and the hotel's carefully manicured garden below.

The inner chamber is closed off with sliding shoji paper screens. Through one door is the walk-in closet and changing room, which leads to the toilet. The bath is in a separate wing, across from the changing room. The walls are cedar, the floors are done in cool slate-colored stone, and there is a jacuzzi surrounded by windows. Suddenly, I'm reminded of one of the reasons people travel: to be Queen for a day.

The staff at Tsukioka Onsen strive to make this illusion seductively palpable. From the moment you arrive (someone is there to serve fresh fruit and green tea as soon as you step into your room), the service is impeccable.

We dine in a private room on the first floor that looks out onto the garden. It's raining, and the drops create waves of concentric circles in the pools. Our first course is an assortment of spring appetizers -- bamboo shoot topped with a single hotaru-ika squid, spring salmon trout wrapped in a sakura cherry leaf, and a skewer of dainty chicken meatballs rolled in pulverized dried sakura-ebi shrimp and nori seaweed. With this, and the next course of sashimi, I enjoyed some local jizke from Fujinoi. The sake had an airy lightness and displayed an oblique, insinuating fruitiness; drinking it was like listening to someone describe the flavor of banana cream pie.

Earlier that day, we'd done a tasting at Ichishima Shuzo, producers of the elegantly understated Omon sake. Their products tend to be dry and very light on the palate, but their 12-year aged Junmai-Ginjo Genshu showed delicious depth, giving off sweet, figgy aromas and delivering woodsy flavors of nuts and dried fruits.


After our visit to Ichishima Shuzo, we toured the grounds of the marvelous Shimizu-en, the former summer home of the Mizoguchi family, which ruled the area for 12 generations. It's lovely, peaceful, and artfully constructed in every detail. The garden and man-made lake had been arranged to resemble the landscape of the eight scenic views of Ohmi in western Japan.




Our guide, the unfailingly enthusiastic Wakaki-san, went to great pains to explain the garden's significance, and led us on a history-packed tour of the city's castle, temples, and important burial places. Try as I might, I will never remember all the names and feuds I learned about that day.

Dinner, on the other hand, was something that I could handle. After a delicate clear broth came sweet steamed crab, which I savored with a dry but mellow honjozo from Koshi no Kanbai, followed by a deeply flavorful piece of grilled nodoguro fish, and a juicy piece of Murakami wagyu steak.


Just when I thought that the night couldn't get any lovelier, Hashimoto-san, the hotel's MD, stopped by to tell us about their private onsen, a salubrious bath of emerald-green water hidden in a secluded spot on the other side of the resort. My partner and I decided to split a session and each go in for 30 minutes (it costs an extra Y4000 per hour).

It was completely worth it.


A night at Tsukioka Onsen will run you about as much as it costs to stay at the Peninsula or the Mandarin Oriental, but that's the price you pay if you want to travel like a Queen. And you know you do.