Onsen Town Togura-Kamiyamada Audio Tour

If you’ve made it this far into the Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen audio tour, you’re probably ready for a break. Stop 30 is the perfect place. Shiokawa makes manju – those ubiquitous pastries filled with sweet adzuki bean paste that you’ll find in onsen areas throughout Japan. Shiokawa also makes apricot sundaes, featuring our area’s tangy apricots that go so nicely with the smoothness of vanilla ice cream. Take your apricot sundae and walk a block south to the Kara-Koro Footbath. Your feet deserve a soak after that long tour. Indulge in the wonderfulness of the ice cream as your feet rejuvenate in the onsen water, and reflect on all the new memories you made here at onsen town, Togura-Kamiyamada.

Stop 29 on the Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen audio tour is a shop called Fashion House Beniya. It is a clothing store on Kamiyamada’s main street, run by Saito-san who we hear in the background. He’s the third generation owner of the shop and while he mostly carries regular Western-styled clothes he also has a selection of Wafuku – traditional Japanese clothes. Most foreigners probably picture kimonos when they think of Wafuku, but that would be like saying tuxedos are the main type of clothing in the West. There is a wide variety of traditional Japanese clothing, everything from padded coats called hanten down to the fundoshi loin cloths. One thing all wafuku has in common, and something that differentiates it from Western clothing, is there are no buttons or zippers For example, the yukata robes that guests at the ryokans get are given to wear are wrapped around and held in place by a sash called an obi. Beniya does sell yukata by the way so if you end up liking them from your ryokan you can purchase one to take home. Beniya also offers “1-Point Wafuku Lessons”. You can make an appointment to have Saito-san demonstrate the basics of traditional Japanese clothes. Participants can try on some and have their picture taken with Beniya’s fine formal Japanese garden and koi pond in the background.

2 blocks down Shin-sekai Dori aka the New World Road, to the west of Kamiyamada’s main street, is Stop 28, a tea shop called Kimijima-en. With over 30 hotels and inns in the onsen town, all serving tea to their guests, it’s no wonder Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen has tea stores. While Kimijima-en also sells traditional Japanese tableware, they specialize in green tea and offer a wide variety including their own original blend. The proprietor, Yasu Kimijima is a certified tea instructor. With prior arrangements, you can take a lesson on the finer points of pouring a delicious cup of Japanese green tea.

Two side streets coming off Chuo-dori, Kamiyamada’s main street, are Omoide-dori and Shinsekai-dori. Literally meaning “Memory Lane” and “New World Road”, these two avenues form the heart of the bar district. Here you will find literally over a hundred bars and drinking establishments. At night time, the bar girls will be out trying to entice people perusing the bar district to come in for karaoke and for some lively conversation. Also in the bar district you will find 3 shateki stands, which are cork gun target shooting parlors. When spending the night at one of the ryokans in town, after dinner go for a stroll in your yukata robe and slip on a pair of wooden geta sandals. It’s fun to go clip-clopping around town and trying your hand at shateki. If you’re a good shot, you may pick up some extra souvenirs to take home.

Chuo-Dori is stop 26 on the Togura Kamiyamada Onsen audio tour. This road is the main street for Kamiyamada Onsen. It is lined with many of the main hotels and inns of the onsen town. Sprinkled amongst the places of lodging are a handful of soba restaurants and unique shops, such as a stationery store featuring Showa-era toys and candy, and a stained glass shop that offers hands-on activities. On the corner of Ginza-Dori and this main street is a convenience store with its own onsen footbath in front. Of the thousands of convenience stores in Japan, this is the only one with a footbath, just another sign that Togura-Kamiyamada is an onsen town.

Thanks to being located along the banks of the Chikuma River, Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen has a rich fishing heritage. At Shimaya, stop25 on the audio tour, they have been specializing in preserving river fish in a sweet marinate, a food called kanroni, for 3 generations. From outside Shimaya, you can smell the sweet aroma of the fish stewing in the huge vats. Step into the store past the tanks of live fish to the tasting room where you can sample the kanroni. Shimaya also makes bottles of uruka, a salty seasoning made with fish innards. Uruka is an acquired taste, but it goes oh so well with sake.

Nagano Prefecture is Japan’s largest producer of miso, and here in Togura-Kamiyamada, we are fortunate to have our own miso maker, Nakajima Miso, stop 24 on the audio tour. Step inside Nakajima Miso’s store. There you can sample the various types of miso they make, from mild to heavy based on the rice and soybean ratio. Also make sure to try the Shoyu Mame which is basically chunky soy sauce. They take soybeans on the way to becoming soy sauce and stop the process half-way through. Shoyu Mame is traditionally made only in the area that is within the sound of the bells of Zenkoji Temple in Nagano City. With advance notice, you can have the owner, Nakajima-san, sit down with you and demonstrate the proper way to make miso soup. Nakajima-san is happy to share his enthusiasm for miso with the world, and his miso paste would make a great souvenir of your visit to Togura-Kamiyamada.

Stop 23 is the side street that connects Togura Onsen’s main road with that of Kamiyamada Onsen. This street used to be lined with all kinds of stores from a tabi sock shop to a clock store, making it the area’s main shopping street, hence it’s nickname, Ginza Dori. While not quite as fashionable as the Ginza in Tokyo, even today you will find a great selection of stores, such as our town’s miso-maker and a kanron marinated fish shop. We’ll be stopping at those places next.

Sasaya Hotel is the 22nd stop on the Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen Audio Tour. This grand ryokan is the most historical of all the inns in town. The wisteria tree in the entrance is over 100 years old. In the center of the hotel complex is a guesthouse building called Hohnen-Mushi. Built in 1932, it is a on Japan’s national historical registry. It was designed by Endo Arata, a protege of Frank Lloyd Wright. Free tours of Hohnen-Mushi are offered daily.

Stop 21 is the main street of Togura Onsen. The onsen town Togura-Kamiyamada is actually made up of 3 separate onsens – Kamiyamada which is just to the west, Togura centered on this road, and Shin-, or New- Togura on the other side of the river, The three of them are collectively known and marketed as Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen. While Kamiyamada has a larger number of inns and hotels, Togura is technically the oldest of the three. Our next stop will be the most historical of all the inns, Sasaya Hotel. This is probably a good time to explain more about what the word “onsen” means. Usually it’s translated into English as hot spring, referring to the mineral waters. People in Japan also call a hot spring bath an onsen, as in, “I just came out of the onsen and feel so relaxed!” In a broader sense, onsen can also mean a hot spring resort town. For example, “We are going for a drive this weekend to spend the night at an onsen.” We like to think Togura-Kamiyamada isn’t just any onsen town, it is The Onsen Town!

We’ve moved a little bit further down the levee road downriver, alongside the Chikuma River, past the beautiful fountain and green space park between the levee and the river. If you come here on August 7th, you will be treated to our town’s annual fireworks display. The pyrotechnics explode practically directly overhead with the flashes of light reflecting off the river’s surface and the sound reverberating off the surrounding hills. It all makes for one of Japan’s most spectacular fireworks festival, in a country world-famous for fireworks. Next to the levee road is a monument to Sakai Ryunosuke. This is the gentleman who was the forefather of Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen. He was the one that came up with the idea of boring for the onsen wells 120 years ago. It is thanks to this man’s foresight and his great energy and spirit that we owe our onsen’s existence.

Welcome to Stop 19. This is a little park along the side of the Chikuma River. The song in the background is actually called Chikuma River, by a famous Japanese singer named Itsuki Hiroshi. The Chikuma River is the longest river in Japan, and holds a romantic spot in a lot of people’s hearts here, inspiring many a poem and song. (Push the button on the sign in this park to hear the song.) The name “Chikuma” means a thousand bends, or a thousand curves. If you see it from above, like if you climb up to Arato-jo, the hilltop mountain fortress, you’ll see what that means as the river winds its way through the heart of Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen.

Stop number 18 is Manyo Bridge. To be more specific, the middle of the bridge. This is one of the 2 main bridges over the Chikuma River here in the heart of our onsen town, Togura-Kamiyamada. Imagine a few geisha ladies standing on the bridge. Actually, imagine a lot of geisha ladies standing on the bridge. Back in this town’s heydays, in the 1970s and 80s, there were actually so many geisha in this town, that at one point, for a special commemorative picture, they all lined up from one end of the bridge to the other, and they spanned the entire bridge. That’s how many geisha were at this Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen back at its peak. Nowadays, there are only about a dozen or so geisha, and they are definitely getting up in age, but we are still very proud of our geisha heritage. When there’s a big banquet, a lot of people will call in the geisha to help provide the entertainment and the conversation and to pour drinks. Another option is a 30-minute geisha show. If you have a small group for a meal at one of the local inns, you can have the ryokan arrange for two geisha to come, a shamisen player and a ‘tachikata’ dancer. They will peform a couple of dances, they will teach the guests how to do one of the dances and everyone will join in a circle and dance to the shamisen, and at the end you play a parlor game called Konpira-funafuna which is basically a drinking game. It’s pretty much impossible to beat the geisha. When you lose, you have to drink a beer. It’s a lot of fun, so if you come to Japan and are hoping to experience a little bit of what the geisha world is like, then Togura-Kamiyamada is the perfect place to do that.

Welcome to Manyo Cho-Onpa Onsen. The English translation is Manyo Supersonic Hot Spring, in reference to the wave action of the onsen water. This bath house opens up at the ungodly hour of 4am. It’s got a coin laundry and a little cafeteria next to it. It’s also got this footbath in the parking lot. So if you’ve been following this audio tour and your feet are starting to ache, this is a great opportunity to soak them in the onsen foot bath here.

Stop #16 is a sculpture at the base of the Chikuma River levee. Made by one of Japan’s most famous post-war artists, Okamoto Taro, the surreal dog-like sculpture is titled “Museki Doubutsu”, which literally means ‘Undocumented Animal’. Take a moment to ponder the piece’s mystical meaning, and to wonder how this important work ended up here! On the way to Museki Doubutsu was the largest of Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen’s 7 day-use bath houses, the new Hakuchoen. Operated by the municipal government, the current facility opened in the fall of 2015. The original bath house had been a local institution and was so famous that Japan’s emperor once visited.

Shuzo Collection is located in what used to be a sake brewery. The sake production dates back over 400 years. In the late 1800s, when the railway was built, the owner of the sake brewery Sakai Ryunosuke realized that the source of his livelihood was about to disappear. The brewery was located on the old Hokkoku Kaido, the path to old Edo – present-day Tokyo, in the Togura Post Town. But with the railway coming through, his livelihood was going to disappear. So he came up with the idea of boring a well for a hot spring, and that was the start of Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen. Nowadays, the original thatched-roof building is made into a soba restaurant as well as a gift shop and also on the premises you can take a tour of the old sake-making facilities. In additin there is a stained glass shop and a pottery shop, too.

Stop 14 is Mizukami Funayama Shrine. Founded in 1608 in what was then Togura-juku, a post town along the Hokkoku Trail to old Edo, this shrine is famous for its wood carvings that have been designated as an Important National Cultural Artifact. Pass through the large red wooden torii gate at the entrance and duck underneath the 2nd gate to enter the courtyard. You’ll find a rather modern building with a beautiful wood carving marking the name of the shrine. It’s impressive, but not impressive enough to be designated as a National Artifact. For that, go further back into the courtyard to see the original shrine building, now enclosed in a protective covering. Here you can see the shrine’s amazingly detailed wooden carvings. Especially noteworthy are the nobori-ryu – rising dragon – on the right, and kudari-ryu – descending dragon, on the left.

We are on Taisho Bridge. This is the 2nd bridge that crosses that Chikuma River here in our onsen town Togura-Kamiyamada. As you cross the bridge, look down. Here and there you will find teeny-tiny red stones imbedded into the surface of the bridge. The red stones refer to a legend involving the local princess. Her husband had gone off to war and hadn’t come back. So she got worried and prayed to the local god who appeared and said, “If you go down to the Chikuma River and find 100 red stones, your lover will come back.” So she went down to the river and searched as hard as she could, but no matter how long she looked, she could only find 99 red stones. She prayed to the god again, who reappeared. Just at the foot of where the god reappeared was the 100th red stone. So the princess picked it up, and right there is where the onsen water started to come out. That’s where Togura-Kamiyada Onsen started. So as you’re crossing the bridge, look for the 99 red stones, and if you go down to the river and find the 100th red stone, your lover will come back, too.

Spot #12 is the Ueda – Chikuma – Nagano Bicycle Way. This cycling path goes from Ueda City in the south, along the Chikuma River all the way north to Nagano City, a total distance of 60km. It’s a leisurely, flat ride along the levee road following the river with great views of the surrounding hills and mountains as well as the Chikuma River itself, which happens to be Japan’s longest river, which doesn’t actually say very much because Japan isn’t all that large. Just on the other side of the river is a hill called Kyoudai-san. On its far side is the Mori Valley, Japan’s largest apricot growing area (which again doesn’t say very much because Japan doesn’t grow a whole lot of apricots, but we are really, really proud of our apricots around here.) In early April, the entire valley is covered by the light pink blossoms, and the fruit becomes ripe for picking at the end of June and early July. There are several other apricot orchards in the area, and the nearest is about 100 meters down the bicycle path on the right in between the levee and the river. Legend has it that a local ruler was betrothed to a princess from far away Shikoku Island. When she moved to Nagano, she brought with her an apricot seed to remind her of Shikoku. It turns out that Nagano’s climate and soil were perfect for growing apricot trees. So make sure to honor the Apricot Princess and buy a souvenir made from our apricots.

Walk through the stately stone arch, the torii gate, that marks the entrance to spot #11, Sarashina Shrine. You will be surrounded by towering cedar trees growing around the ancient shrine and its sumo ring. Sarashina Shrine dates back to 433 A.D. Originally it was located at the top of the hill behind the current location, but in the year 887, an earthquake caused a landslide that destroyed the first building. This is one of the most historical shrines in the area. For me, though, what is most impressive, besides the timeless Japanese architecture, are the huge cedar trees that impart such a deep sense of peace and tranquility – if you can block out the sound of the cicadas.

Spot #10 is the path that goes up to Nishi Koen, which means “West Park”. The entrance is marked by a pair of marble pillars. If you walk up the path, you’ll find Nishi Koen to the right. It’s not much of a park – just an old slide and a swing set. But the cherry tree blossoms here are beautiful in mid-April. To the left is Togura Kamiyamada Onsen’s Yakushido, This small temple is dedicated to Yakushi Nyurai, the Buddha of healing and medicine. Since onsen waters are considered to have medicinal and healing properties, you’ll commonly find Yakushido temples at onsen areas throughout Japan.

Kame no Yu is one of Togura-Kamiyamada’s 7 day-use bath houses. It is the main bath house for Kamiyamada, and many locals come here for here for a soak every day. It is not uncommon for people to not have a shower or bathtub in their own home so coming to Kame no Yu is a daily ritual. You’ll find a steady stream of locals coming for their daily bath. Kame no Yu is actually run by the Kamiyamada Onsen Company, and they are very liberal with the amount of onsen water they provide for the baths here, making Kame no Yu one of the best bath houses to experience Kamiyamada’s hot spring mineral water. As you came to this bath house, you may have noticed a massive abandoned hotel at the base of Joyama Mountain. This ghost hotel is a relic of Togura-Kamiyamada’s hey days in the 1970s and 80s. Back then, there were busloads and busloads of groups, mostly men, mostly neighborhood groups or company workers, mostly coming to Nagano City to make a pilgrimage to Zenkoji Temple. That was the ‘status’ place to go. After taking an official group photo and buying the obligatory souvenirs, they would stay at a ryokan here, throw a huge banquet, call in the geisha, and live it up for a night before returning to their regular lives. Japan’s travel culture has since evolved. It’s now people going to places they want to go, with the people they want to be with to do things they want to do – much more individualized. That ghost hotel didn’t make the transition. Today, there are 30 inns and hotels in town that cater to individual travelers from all over Japan, and hopefully, from all over the world.

Stop 8 is an onsen drinking fountain. Grab a ladle and take a sip of Kamiyamada’s hot spring mineral water. The onsen water has a strong sulfur content, yet is slightly alkali with a pH of around 8.6, which gives a silky smooth feel to your skin when you bathe in it. While the sulfur smell may offend your nose, the minerals will do wonders for your body, so go ahead, try drinking it. The small building that the drinking fountain is attached to houses an onsen well. This is one of the 14 wells owned by the Kamiyamada Onsen Company. The wells on average are around 400 meters deep, and the onsen water comes up to within 200 meters of the surface. From there, it is pumped up before being distributed to the various inns and hotels in the onsen town. Each well is a different temperature, and the onsen company increases the flow from the hotter wells in the winter, and the cooler ones in the summer, so that the water is sent to the onsen baths at a constant 47 degrees all year-round. On the north side of the building is a window through which you can take a peek and see the well’s pump. This well’s temperature is around 53 degrees Celsius.

Stop 7 is Taishokan Theater. This building with a funky shaped red awning on the façade used to be home to a strip show. But they threw in the towel, literally, and now the theater holds productions of what is called Taishu Engeki, basically ‘theater for the masses’. It is like an everyman’s version of kabuki theater featuring actors made up as women – kind of like a geisha drag show. Every month a different troupe comes through, and they have performances every day at 1 in the afternoon and 7 at night. The first half is usually a type of a play, like yakuza gangsters vs. the geisha. The 2nd half often consists of a variety of songs and dances, some traditional dance set to traditional music, some traditional dance set to a Eurobeat, and much, much more. If you’re in the mood to take in some art, come to Taishokan.

Stop #6 is the intersection of Manyo Dori, the street that crosses the Chikuma River over the Manyo Bridge, and Joyama Dori, the road at the base of Joyama Mountain. ‘Jo’ is one of the readings for the kanji that means castle, and at the top of Joyama is a fortress called Arato-jo. Most of Japan’s castles are like the one in nearby Matsumoto. Located in the middle of the city, Matsumoto-jo was built so as to be able to be seen from anywhere in the city, a symbol of the influence of the local ruler. Arato-jo on the other hand was designed so most of its structures aren’t visible from below – it was strictly for defensive purposes. Originally built in the 1500’s, Arato-jo was reconstructed in the 1990’s based on research by a local professor. It provides a spectacular overhead view of Togura-Kamiyamada and of the Chikuma River valley below, and you will get a sense of what samurai life used to be like. Arato-jo is about a 25 minute walk from this intersection. On the way up you will pass Kanon-ji, the large red-roofed building visible from practically all of the onsen town. It is a branch of the venerable Zenkoji Temple in Nagano City. The temple is lit up at night, along with the kanji characters on the mountain spelling out the name of the town, Hollywood-style. Next to Kanon-ji is a tiny shrine called Okutsu Jinja. It is for couples who are hoping to have a baby, and houses two, err, objects. Those two, err, objects are brought down and paraded around town during the summer festival. Otherwise the two fertility symbols can be seen in Okutsu Shrine throughout the year.

We’re at the 5th stop on the tour, a museum. It is dedicated to something a bit unusual – piggy banks. The owner, a local pharmacist named Nishizawa-san, started collecting piggy banks years ago, and his collection kept on growing until it became the largest private collection of piggy banks in all of Japan. He built this museum to showcase all of his piggy banks. If you think about it, piggy banks tend to reflect the pop culture of the time, so at the Nishizawa Piggy Bank Museum you can see Japan’s pop culture over the years through … piggy banks!

We’re at Stop #4, Chuo Koen, which literally means “Central Park”. Hmm, not quite as grand as New York’s, but Kamiyamada’s Central Park serves as the town’s main ‘hanami’ spot with the cherry trees in bloom around mid-April. After playing on the swings and slides, head over to the southwest corner of the park and you will see a collection of stone and marble monuments. The middle one is a tall, slender black slab with 3 kanji characters on it: Ho-Jyo-Tsuka. It is a memorial for ‘hojyo’, chef’s knives. There are 30 inns and hotels as well as over a hundred restaurants here in Togura-Kamiyamada, each with a full kitchen and professional chefs. To those chefs, their knives aren’t just inanimate objects. They have a soul. So when it comes time to discard them, the chefs guild has traditionally held a ceremony here to bless their used knives, hence this memorial. It’s a sign of the commitment and dedication the chefs have, and a reason visitors should partake of the local cuisine when staying at Togura-Kamiyamada.

We’re at Stop #3 on the tour. This ivy-covered orangeish-yellowish building with white and red paper lanterns is actually the headquarters for the Kamiyamada Onsen Summer Festival. Taking place every year during the Marine Day 3-day weekend in July, it’s Kamiyamada’s largest annual event. Everyone in the town participates. It’s basically a festival in honor of the water gods in the hopes that the Chikuma River doesn’t flood our town. It has evolved into our town’s biggest annual get-together with a 500-person dance procession, a huge shishi lion pulling a 2-story float where the geisha dance, several omikoshi portable shrines, taiko drumming, fireworks and more. You won’t find a more energy-filled festival anywhere in Japan. Well, we might be a bit biased. But if you’re in Japan during the 3-day weekend in July, don’t miss it. Anyways, while you are standing in front of this building, try to be as quiet as you can, and listen, down by your feet, and you will probably hear a hissing noise. That’s steam coming from one of the vents for the onsen pipes. There is a network of pipes running underground throughout the town distributing the hot spring water from the wells to the various inns and hotels. In the winter time, it’s easy to see where the pipes run because that’s where the snow first melts. We’ll explain more about the onsen wells later in the tour. One of the signs that you are in an onsen town is hearing the steam like this from the vents of the onsen pipes.

Kara-Koro Footbath is the main starting point for the Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen audio tour. While technically being stop number two if you count Togura Station, this footbath is where we’ll start the explanation of the onsen town. Kara-Koro refers to the clip-clop sound that wooden geta sandals make. Because this is an onsen town, guests of the inns are encouraged to go for a stroll in their yukata robe wearing the geta provided by the ryokans. After checking in, many people go for a walk before dinner, and this footbath is a popular destination. Kara-Koro is popular with everyone who lives here, too, so half the fun of using the footbath is getting to chat with a friendly local. This audio tour will finish here at Kara-Koro Footbath, so don’t worry, your feet will get a chance for a soak after we’ve explored the rest of Togura-Kamiyamada.

Welcome to Togura Station, the gateway to Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen.  And, welcome to the Onsen Town Togura-Kamiyamada Audio Tour. Nestled in a valley along the banks of the Chikuma River, the hot spring mineral waters of Togura Kamiyamada have been rejuvenating travelers to Nagano for 125 years.  The skin-smoothing alkaline onsen water high in sulfur content can be enjoyed at the various inns and hotels as well as the 7 day-use bath houses.  Togura-Kamiyamada became renowned as a stopover point for pilgrims to nearby Zenkoji Temple and boasts a lively geisha presence to this day. Togura-Kamiyamada is a convenient 2 hours from Tokyo by shinkansen bullet train, and is centrally located to the best of Nagano, such as the snow monkeys of Jigokudani and Matsumoto Castle.  It isn’t isolated in the middle of the mountains, nor is it crowded into a concrete jungle of a city.  It is a town, with 30 ryokans for lodging and over a hundred outstanding eateries and bars, and a plethora of family-run local shops to explore.  It is a town – an onsen town.  We like to think of it as THE Onsen Town, Togura-Kamiyamada. Your guide for this audio tour of Onsen Town Togura-Kamiyamada will be me, Tyler, an American-born innkeeper of one of the local ryokans.  I hope you will enjoy getting an insiders perspective to our town. To start the tour, head across the river from Togura Station to the Kara-Koro Footbath in the onsen town’s center.  Take a bus or taxi, or if you’re staying the night, most ryokans provide free pick-up.  Away we go – ikimasho.

Welcome to Togura Station, the gateway to Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen. And, welcome to the Onsen Town Togura-Kamiyamada Audio Tour. Nagano Prefecture's Togura-Kamiyamada Onsen is nestled in a valley along the banks of the Chikuma River. The hot spring mineral waters of Togura-Kamiyamada have been rejuvenating traveler for 125 years. The skin-smoothing alkaline onsen water high in sulfur content can be enjoyed at the various inns and hotels as well as the 7 day-use bath houses. Togura-Kamiyamada became renowned as a stopover point for pilgrims to nearby Zenkoji Temple and boasts a lively geisha presence to this day. Togura-Kamiyamada is a convenient 2 hours from Tokyo by shinkansen bullet train, and is centrally located to the best of Nagano, such as the snow monkeys of Jigokudani and Matsumoto Castle. It isn’t isolated in the middle of the mountains, nor is it crowded into a concrete jungle of a city. It is a town, with 30 ryokans for lodging and over a hundred outstanding eateries and bars, and a plethora of family-run local shops to explore. It is a town – an onsen town. The locals like to think of it as THE Onsen Town, Togura-Kamiyamada. Your guide for this audio tour of Onsen Town Togura-Kamiyamada is Tyler, an American-born innkeeper of one of the local ryokans. Use it while planning your Japan itinerary to get an idea of the memorable experiences waiting to made in Togura-Kamiyamada. Or use it to tour the town once you've arrived, for an insider's perspective with this audio guide. An accompanying map and detailed information about 100+ of the town's inns, restaurants, bath houses, shops etc. are available at www.onsen-town.com.