Things to do in Japan : Shirahama Onsen, Wakayama

If you follow my blog you would know by now that I love visiting Japanese hot springs or onsens. They are the perfect way to un-wind after a long and hectic week. So last weekend, I went to Nanki Shirahama onsen, that is a small onsen town in Wakayama Prefecture. It was a last moment trip, we made a booking at Kawakyu Hotel that has a natural hot spring bath ( of course ) and on top of it they have a shuttle bus from Namba OCAT to the hotel (although the bus is in the afternoon and so you loose half a day, but still it’s free!!! ). It takes 2 hours to get to Shirahama from Osaka. We checked in our hotel which was almost empty. It is a beautiful castle like building with huge rooms and a great view of the back water. And then we headed out to see the famous sunset at 円月島 -Engetsu Islet which is an eroded island. Because of the erosion the centre of the island has an opening that resembles the full moon. We continued walking to Shirahama beach that is on the same road along the coast. Shirahama beach is famous for it’s white sand imported from Australia. The beach was beautiful and the water really clear but still a little cold. Shirahama is a small town and it is not the peak season now so the town was empty with hardly any restaurants or taxis around. We could ask our hotel to prepare our dinner but we didn’t as we needed to have our dinner at 8 if in the hotel!!!! So we had to look around a lot for a decent place or any place to eat. Finally we found a small but cute restaurant near the beach which was already closing down at 7!!. After our dinner we had to ask a convenience shop guy to call us a taxi back to the hotel since there were no taxis around. Once in the hotel I headed straight to the onsen which was not at all crowded. There is no room service in most hotels in the smaller towns in Japan ( Japanese people swear by convenience stores ) and we did no different. We bought a host of snacks and drinks from Family Mart and after snacking a bit called it a day.
Moral of the Story – If you visit a small town in Japan, ensure that it is not in the off season!!

Our hotel…

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Hotel’s onsen…

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Shirahama beach..

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Sweater – H&M, 15 $, 2014, also worn here;
Skirt – Zara, 10 $ on Sale, 2014, also worn here;
Cut-out boots – H&M, 50 $, 2014; also worn here;
Bag – GU, 20 $, 2013; also worn here;
Sunglasses – Chanel, gift, 2014;