hot spring - an experience

My friend A and I ventured to an onsen called Takaragawa (treasure river) hot spring resort. To get there we took the shinkansen and then a bus of around an hour and then another bus of about 5 minutes. Finally got there and ready to have a relaxing time however, it wasn't quite what we imagined. Rather run-down and in good need of some investment partners to revitalise it, we were slightly bewildered from the place. To get to the baths we had to go up through the hotel and then via like a cave/basement type of tunnel, filled with an assortment of unwanted junk. Ranging from cheap and tacky unwanted "made in china" souviner goods to kids toys. All very dusty and dirty. The ironic thing was, they even had prices on them! This tunnel was a good 40metres and really wasn't a good start to what we had travelled to. After surviving the 5 minute walk to the outside hot springs amongst the mountain and river, we finally reached the destination of the hot spring that we had been wanting to relax in to. We were very lucky, and we had the entire bath to ourselves. There were 3 other women in the bath, and then when they hopped out, we had the place to ourselves. Kind of made up for the long trek out there. Was very peaceful and we had a good hour of soaking in the water.
The temperature was really cold (-1) and so the soak in the tub was great, but apart from that, there wasn't much else you could do there. We did manage to get some great soba mountain veggie noodles though! Caught the bus back to Minakami Station where it started to snow heavily. What a day.

Was going to buy some nozawa (Japanese veggie) buckwheat (soba) flour grilled bun, but when we saw the lady take them out of the fridge and then was going to heat them in the microwave, we turned her down. She then went to complain that that was their style.. a bit of misleading advertising if you ask me. A and I did find some great dried figs which we ate all the way back to Tokyo (a good 3 hours on the slower train). Am now totally sick of figs. Was great to get out into the mountains, but I think I will really do my homework before I venture out into the wildness again of Japan. Websites, really don't give you enough information and are very misleading. Make sure you do your homework before you go, as one can lead to being disappointment. Having said that, if I was a fresh newly-arrived foreigner in Japan, perhaps I would have been more impressed with the atmosphere, however, being in Tokyo and spolit with the choice and style of establishments, not to mention the service, I wouldn't reccommend going there, although the actual onsen water was of very good quality, and my skin still feels sube sube (smooth as silk!).

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Oscar Wilde