Ever heard of the Spirited Away film from Ghibli? Apparently, this place served as an inspiration for the film. If you remember the bathhouses from the film, you'll see the resemblance when walking around Ginzan Onsen.
Ginzan Onsen (é幹渊ćł) means Silver Mountain Hot Spring if you translate it into English. True enough, this place was once a silver mine. Later on, hot spring was discovered and then, Ginzan Onsen came to fruition. Today, there are few ryokans in this small town and because of its picture-perfect view, this place is booming with visitors from all over the world especially during the Winter season when the place is covered with snow.
source: Wikipedia: Ginzan Onsen history
Ryokans in Ginzan Onsen are usually fully booked 6 months before, especially during winter. There are only a few ryokans, maybe 3 to 5, in the town, so most people just come here for a day tour. We tried to get a reservation in all the ryokans in the town but we were too late, we tried looking from November and everything was already fully booked for January.
So we had to avail of accommodation in another town. Ginzan Onsen is in Yamagata Prefecture, and I don't really know what's famous in this prefecture except for this town so at first, we thought of getting a hotel near Murayama Station, suggested by my friend because the bullet train passes there and commuting to Ginzan Onsen would take us around 1 hour. It's impossible to go back to Tokyo on the same day so we're getting a hotel nearby.
Getting to Ginzan Onsen is quite tough, especially during winter. Because its location is secluded in the mountains, there were only a few buses that go to this place. The last bus departs around 6 or 7 PM and after that, you'll be left to walk to the nearby town. Sure taxis are present in Japan but with the competition, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to get one.
My friend told me when they visited Ginzan Onsen, they were not able to ride the last bus so along with many Japanese who also came to visit the place, they walked in the middle of the night, braving the snow storm, just to get home. So if you're planning to come, make sure to plan ahead if you're going to commute.
Luckily, we found accommodation and a tour package from Tendo Onsen, still in Yamagata Prefecture. The tour package is a simple one, there's just a bus that will take us to Ginzan Onsen from Tendo, and will also fetch us after an hour's stay in Ginzan. It's called Twilight Tour so we would be able to enjoy Ginzan Onsen around sunset. The tour package doesn't include accommodation in Tendo and it doesn't matter where in Tendo you'll be staying, as long as you get to the meetup area.
From the drop-off point, we had to walk for around 10-15 minutes in the snowy road and in the snowstorm. People were walking with us too because the parking is still far from the town proper. Only vehicles registered to the people living here are able to enter the town.
We only have an hour to explore the town so without further ado, we took turns snapping a lot of our portraits.
After we were satisfied, we moved on to other areas. We're still in the entrance. LOL
We found a good spot to take photos in one of the many bridges so we had to snap portraits again. The place is just too perfect for self portraits!
My Canadian friend was so bothered by my outfit in this snowy area but oh well, I truly enjoyed the snow because I don't get to see this often and I wanted to show off my inner clothes for a contrast of color for my portraits. đ And I really wanted to know how cold it is too! So sorry not sorry guys if you'll also be bothered by my outfit. đ Don't worry, I didn't catch a cold after this stunt.
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We were freezing so after the photo shoot, we had to look for a cafe to stay warm.
We found a restaurant that's open til 7PM. At 5PM they were already serving dinner but we came here for a hot drink and dessert.
There were only 2 desserts, the strawberry shortcake which I ordered and the maroon mousse cake. I ordered cafe latte too to make me warm but I barely enjoyed it because we had to hurry or else we would be left behind, and the coffee was still bitter for me even after putting sugar.
My friend wanted to take another round of portraits, just a quick one before we leave Ginzan Onsen. He wasn't satisfied by our photos of him. đ So we were on a rush.
There was a footbath with the hot spring water but no one dared to use it.
I was really wondering what this small indoor space was. Turns out, it was a small coffee area. You can get hot coffee and keep yourself warm inside sitting in the chairs. I think the hot coffee was from the vending machine if my memory serves me right.
The Twilight Tour was a huge help for us because when we were going back, we saw a lot of people falling in line to get to the bus, probably the last for the day, and not all would be accommodated.
By the way, I made a super short video clip. Music by 30186563 from Pixabay.
Our call time was 6 PM and I reached the bus at 5:59 PM, being the last one to get on. We call that giri-giri (ăŽăŞăŽăŞ) in Japanese which means barely made it in time. đ My friends were walking so fast, and I was like a snowman walking in the snow, with almost nothing to see but only white. The snowstorm was too heavy and the snow was blocking my eyes. My eyelashes were full of snow too! The mask helped but my face was still so numb from the cold. At that time, I just wished I would reach the bus sooner to take shelter from the heavy snow.
But this adventure in Ginzan Onsen, even for just an hour, was definitely the highlight of our weekend. It was so magical and majestic and all the positive adjectives in the dictionary could not contain how beautiful this place is!
If you ask me if I'd come again, I would. There are still so many areas left to explore there for sure! They say Ginzan Onsen is best in all seasons so who knows, maybe I'll come back in the future.
Thanks for reading!
See you around! ăăăăăžăăďź
All photos are taken using my phone unless stated otherwise.