Staying at Crane Hill

During our holidays we stopped at a town called Tsuruoka, or "Crane hill". We spent the night in a famous area for hot springs called Yutagawa. As far as David could understand, the village has had hot spring baths for 1,300 years! We stayed in a traditional-style Japanese inn. After a discussion with a couple of Japanese friends today I'm not sure whether it was a full 旅館 (ryokan) or a smaller 民宿 (minshuku).

These were the beautiful decorations in our room.

We stayed in the Takasago Room (named, I think, after a particular traditional Noh play) at a traditional Japanese inn.  The boys were across the hall in the Crane Room.

 Our traditional room.

We walked to a nearby field to see fireflies. First time I've ever seen them! Of course it's hard to take a photo. These are three that our youngest son picked up. They were glowing, but of course you can't see it here!

Like many places in Japan, they have their own designs on the man hole covers.

This was our inn. Our room was the top left, the boys top right. Of course we enjoyed the baths before retiring to our beds. A quintessential Japanese experience.

The view from where we did our laundry before heading to our campsite.