Our Alpine-style retreat at Sounkyo Spa
I’ve a confession to make.
When we travel overseas, my wife usually drives. The reason is simple: i am the better navigator and she, the better driver.
Over the years, this partnership was repeatedly put to the test and each time, i’m glad to say, we’ve passed with flying colours.
However this arrangement does have the unfortunate effect of making me by far the more idle partner. Between my navigational duties, i, being the good-natured husband and always with the best of intentions, like to point out interesting sights to my wife.
But in most cases she can’t manage more than a glimpse because, as she likes to remind me, she’s too busy making sure we don’t end up smeared onto the road.
My wife put up with this injustice stoically, resigning herself to the belief that i’m the best person to bring us to our destinations.
Naturally she doesn’t take too kindly to any flaccid performance on my part.
Arriving at Hotel Northern Lodge
“Are we there yet?” my wife grumbled with more than a hint of hostility in her voice.
“Yes we’re almost there…about 20 minutes more. Trust me.” I replied thumping my chest.
After about 20 such non-conversations, we finally drove into Sounkyo Spa. It was drizzling when we pulled into the small, unsheltered carpark at Hotel Northern Lodge. Both of us were worn out from 4 hours on the road and truth-be-told the scenery and the conversation had become quite dreary.
I put on my rain-proof jacket and ran up to the reception to check us in while my wife waited in the car.
The lady at the reception seemed a bit startled to see me. I pulled out my reservation email and asked if a parking lot was reserved for us. We had taken the last lot and i was concerned that we may find the small carpark full when we return from our day trips.
On hearing the words “full carpark” and perhaps confused by my wet appearance, the lady scrambled out of her counter, dashed out into the rain and squinted at the carpark below.
She ran back, gave me a big smile and said with surprisingly fluent English that “there is still parking space”. For the next couple of days, this lady would flash us a winning smile whenever we run into her.
The facilities
After collecting the room keys, i returned to the car to help my wife carry the luggage up. As soon as we entered the hotel, my wife whirled into action, darting around with her sizeable luggage bobbing in her wake.
Within a minute, she reported back, hands full of brochures, that there was a coin-operated launderette, a vending machine for washing detergents and toiletries as well as a common spa in the hotel basement. Candles, the quaintly-named sourvenir shop, looked inviting with its vast arrays of wooden merchandise and local foodstuff.
The room
Our room at Hotel Northern Lodge was surprisingly spacious
Given our previous experience in Tokyo, we were pleasantly surprised by how spacious our 3rd floor room was. We threw our heavy backpacks onto the 3-seater couch and spilt the brochures onto the coffee table.
After a couple of minutes poking around furnitures and checking out the ensuite toilet, we gave the room a thumbs-up. This hotel though small was obviously well-run.
The toilet, carpet and bed linens were clean. The fridge was the largest i’ve ever seen in any hotel rooms and we definitely appreciate the small in-room safe which eliminated the need to carry our valuables around.
Interestingly there was a wierd de-humidifier-lookalike in one corner of the room. We didn’t get to figure out what it was.
Next…
