Matsushiroso in Nagano’s Food and Onsen Exceeds All Expectations!

With 190k people guests a year, Matsushiroso is one of the most popular national hotels!

Matsushiro where Matsushiroso is at is a very historic city. In the Edo Period, Matsushiro Domain was a castle town part of the Sanada Clan’s domain. Here Matsushiroso is built in the image of a traditional one storied samurai house. The entrance gate is built to mimic the historic crossbar gate of the Sanada family home, and has even received a Scenery Prize from Nagano City. It is an impressive building that makes you disbelieve this is run by the government.

Access here is an easy 5 minute drive from Nagano Interchange. It is tucked away in rice fields 780m above sea level.

Originally Matsushiroso was only a day trip bath house. It was only developed into a hotel after the local citizens sent a petition that they wanted to enjoy the fantastic onsen with leisure and not a hurried day trip. With the staying guests and day trip guests combined in 2014 190k people visited Matsushiroso (a daily average of 550~600 people). If you look at the never ending amount of guests arriving at Matsushiroso, you can’t help but be awed at how popular it is.

The spacious parking lot can hold up to 60 cars, but around 10am when the day trip visitor bath time starts which overlaps with check in time around 3~5pm it gets busy.

You can reserve a room at Matsushiroso over the phone 6 months ahead and by internet 3 months ahead of your visit. Because of its popularity it pays to make the reservation as early as possible.

A luxurious Japanese garden that belies that it is a government run hotel

When you enter Matsushiroso in front of you is the luxurious Japanese garden!

Next to it is a row of sofas for you to relax and just view the garden after a bath.

In all there are 36 rooms at Matsushiroso. Mainly they are Japanese style rooms and there are a few western rooms, but the Japanese rooms have a balcony where can view the Japanese garden up close and personal so they are highly recommended.

A highly concentrated hot spring Matsushiro Onsen

We took a look at the exterior and the garden but the biggest selling point of Matsushiroso has to be the onsen.

The temperature is 45.2 degrees Celsius, and is completely unadulterated 100% pure hot spring water from the source. The color is so thick you can’t see the bottom of the tub it almost looks like miso soup it is so golden brown.

It is way over the standard levels of minerals to be effective such as 6 times more lithium which helps with anxiety, 2 times the amount of iron helping with anemia, 6 times the level of iodine which is usually used for antibacterial purposes, 6 times sodium bicarbonate that helps with exfoliation, 4 times the level of carbon dioxide which helps lower high blood pressure by opening up capillaries.

Aside from the above there are metasillic acid, metaborate, iron and is a very rich hot spring. Of course it is good for the skin but at these levels it would be a shame to simply label it a beautifying bath! With such high levels it is very effective. Not only for good skin but also as a detox and it makes wounds heal faster as well, so for those that want to have baths for medical treatments Matsushiroso is perfect for you.

There is one thing to be careful of, even though it is an amazing onsen.

That is because it is a perfect temperature it might be easy to fall asleep while bathing. Matsushiro Onsen is so thick with minerals that some may get sick from absorbing too much at once. It is best to take many breaks and not to bathe too long.

Guests at Matsushiroso can enjoy the indoor and 7 outdoor baths

At Matsushiroso the baths for guests and day trip visitors are separate.

The day trip guests only have access to the spacious indoor bath, a small half bath, and 3 outdoor baths. The guest baths are an indoor and outdoor bath.

All baths share a common feature it is that there are mineral deposits thick on the bath tubs and the floors. This is most likely from the calcium carbonate. Apparently they shave off 3cm of it every year but it isn’t enough. This thick caking of minerals just tells you how concentrated the water really is. It is pretty rare so look out for this.

• Bathing time 3pm (check in) to 11pm, 6am to 10am (check out) next morning

• Bathing time 10am to 10pm (last entrance 9:30p) • Price 510 JPY per person

The food and alcohol at Matsushiroso is very high level! They even have a beer specialist

Have you ever had the experience of going to a government run hotel and found the food not good and not bad but just normal?

Matsushiroso doesn’t just have a great onsen, their food is spectacular as well!

The chef who was pulled from a private hotel makes a kaiseki menu that uses local ingredients to their full potential. The most popular produce of Matsushiro is yam, and they use it in many of the dishes, which are not only tasty but have volume as well.

The count of items depend on which guest plan you have and are separated as below:

• The most extravagant ~ Daimyo Course 15 items *Pictured above is part of the Daimyo Course • Standard ~ Ougi Course 13 items • Taster ~ Matsu Course 11 items • Set meal course 9 items

On average it costs about 10,000 JPY per person to stay and the most expensive Daimyo Course which includes Shinshu Beef grilled with magnolia leaves and miso, costs only 15,900 JPY per person making it very affordable! Yes, this isn’t a high end hotel it is a people’s hotel.

Another great thing here is that there is a Beer Meister at Matsushiroso. The beer is poured while adjusting the pressure to the temperature making a very creamy head on the beer, making you think twice about what good beer is. When you visit Matshiroso you should definitely have a draft beer.