Kashiwaya Ryokan - 吾妻郡

I made a reservation here and was very excited until I learned that they do not offer vegan meals for solo travelers. If you're vegan and on your own, don't want to come here. I found this place through the Rave reviews on HappyCow, but since they refused to serve me vegan food, I have to rate it low. From Kashiwaya Ryokan: When we prepare vegan meals, we need to get the special ingredients and cook with a different cooking method than usual. Therefore, vegan cooking for one person leads to a great loss for the ingredients and time. So we cannot sell the vegan option for solo travelers.

Going in the depths of winter is nice: few guests, friendly staff and lush vegan meals! The pools were amazing, you will get high quality beauty products in your room and even real teas, magnificent views and cute Yukata robes. The Japanese vegan foods contain konjak, which is completely vegan and even prepared in the house, it can look very similar to raw fish, but actually made from a gooey vegetables. #Veganuary

We visited Kashiwaya and the staff were all very courteous and friendly. After we take the bus from the train station, we were welcomed and given slippers to replace our shoes and taken into our room. Although we don't know much Japanese, the staff were very helpful and knew enough English to help us. You have public sex based onsen, 3 private onsen that you can use if not already in use, and a few rooms with private onsen (we were in one of those came . The vegan dinner and breakfast they were provided was excellent. We also enjoyed walking to the city centre and eating the popular local cuisine: yakimanju and Onsen Manju! Very recommended to try this during your stay :

It's not easy to find an onsen ryokan who supplies vegans when I came over Kashiwaya, I was above the moon. The whole experience here from arrival to departure was magical. In fact, even before arrival only driving through the beautiful landscape of Tokyo to Gunma Prefecture was great; such an adventure! We received local candy and kombucha on arrival. The contrast between subtle candy and salty drink was pleasing. I later discovered the same sweets we were served were to buy in the city. We went a bath in the bathrooms before dinner, which we decided to have at 6.30 (in our room). The bathrooms were beautiful and although we are tattooed on a large scale, this was not a problem as there were three private bathrooms (and we had attached our own outdoor pool to our room). After a good snout we conjured our Yukata and moved into our room just in time to start the festival. The multicourse festival was just incredible. There were so many different colors and textures and aromas. Our menu came with English language descriptions of each record. The food is served seasonal and most ingredients are just a stone's throw away from the village / peasants. From the many dishes we tried, I enjoyed the stuffed Daikon Radieschen, the creamy silk Sesam Tofu, the grilled Aubergine and the hotpot. There were so many different small salads, cucumbers and some delicious (huge) marinaded beans. For dessert was a fresh fruit salad. It looks as if the many tiny portions weren't filled out, but that's completely misleading as we were both filled at the end of it, and we're usually quite big eaters. The service of all employees was upstairs and beyond, we really felt like VIPs. For our breakfast the following day we got the possibility of a Japanese or Western breakfast. We chose Japanese because we traditional Japanese breakfast with Natto, miso, etc... It was again a big and varied breakfast. Very traditional, very tasty. This was a kind of culinary experience and one that I highly recommend to anyone who goes to Japan. It was the highlight of our trip. We will return absolutely in another season to taste the delicious seasonal offers of autumn. One thing to note: If you are not a particularly adventurous eater and by textures that are not familiar (or if you do not like mushrooms), this may not be for you.

This is a great onsen for vegans or people with food allergies. It 's also tattoo friendly! There are 3 private outdoor baths and an indoor public bath. I 've gone with multiple guests each time I went to Kashiwaya. They were able to accommodate onion and peanut allergies with no problem as well as offering vegan meals. The kaiseki dinner is wonderful and it 's a ton of food. I also recommend trying the Shima Onsen sake that you can purchase for 1500 yen. The private baths are great since you can enjoy them with your entire group. My only complaint is that the breakfast served isn 't totally to my taste. The Western Breakfast included a vegan pumpkin soup that was delicious but the main part of it was just sauteed mushrooms that I wasn 't a fan of. I would have preferred to have tofu. The Japanese Breakfast looked like it had more variety but it was also a lot of mushrooms. On the way back to Tokyo I found that there was a local organic bakery that sold goods at Nakanojo Station and I picked up some vegan manjuu buns! The train can be a little confusing to take, but there 's the option to take the Express Kusatsu train which takes two hours from Ueno to Nakanojo, however, it does not run very often so check the schedule. The slightly shorter option but includes a transfer, is taking the Shinkansen to Takasaki, then switching to a local train to get to Nakanojo Station. From Nakanojo station, you take Bus #1 to Seiryuu no Yu Iriguchi. Overall it takes about 2-3 hours to get there from Ueno station.