A few weeks ago I went to Okutsu in Northern Okayama for a night to enjoy the hot springs. Even though I have lived in Okayama for seven years I have not spent much time up in the northern part of the prefecture. But it was beautiful, quiet, peaceful and a nice change of pace.

It was my first time to Okutsu, but we had no car, so we had to go by public transportation. We first had to take a train to Tsuyama which took about an hour, but from there we had to catch two different buses to get to the hotel which took about another hour and a half. The buses were empty, so we were the only ones on them.

After about two and a half hours of travelling we finally made it to Okutsu. Even though it was cloudy, it luckily was not rainy. We immediately went to our hotel “Okutsu-so” and checked out the facilities. There were four different baths at the hotel, two of them were private. But we soon discovered there were only three other guests at the hotel. We were able to relax and enjoy many different baths and a lot of delicious traditional food. We ordered the meat course for dinner, and it certainly lived up to its name. Breakfast ended up having too much food for us to eat, but none the less it was good.

If you are interested in hot springs, I recommend you check out Okutsu. It is a nice getaway from the city life.