EXP | Yugawara

From the mountains to the forests to the rivers to the ocean.

The back of a 37 year old caucasian American male named Matthew | long, wavy, auburn hair | red and black plaid jacket, black jeans, autumn collection, engineer boots | standing next to a Japanese onsen beside a river in rural Japan | face is not visible | beautiful autumn afternoon | bright, natural colors | Yugawara, Kanagawa, Japan | Autumnal | 8k resolution --ar 16:9 --style raw --chaos 23

Yugawara. Where the surf gracefully meets the mountains. Where Kanagawa leisurely bleeds into Shizuoka. Where the onsen water flows in abundance. Where I often call home. How could I not talk about this place?

Yugawara, last stop in Kanagawa on the Tokaido Line, just before Atami and just south of Hakone.

It’s a tiny, quiet town about an hour southwest of Tokyo by bullet train and about 2 by local that’s been bubbling away for at least 1,100 years. Back then it was established enough to be featured in the Manyo’shu, but these days it rarely makes headlines. Hell, I only know about it because I stumbled across it serendipitously while searching for farms I could work on the weekends at the start of the pandemic.

A sample of the Yugawara area

Its got its charm, for me at least, and while a whole lot of things boil down to perspective at the end of the day, one thing that’s very hard to deny about this area is that it is an outdoors lovers dream. Its main attractions are hiking, climbing, surfing, scuba, and camping, all of which I have reveled in over the 3+ years I’ve had my place down there.

Its also got a slew of high-class hotels, ryokan, and onsen, and a very nice variety of restaurants. If its nightlife yr looking for then you’ll probably be relatively disappointed, but its also got its fair share of drinking establishments.

Anyway, I could probably drone on about it, but instead of anecdotes why don’t we jump into the meat of it and check out some recommendations!

The Accommodation: Treeside

Taken straight from Google Maps

I’m really picky about accommodations not because I am picky - quite the opposite - but because all of you are picky. Jeezus. The things I’ve had friends, family, and clients alike complain about over the years. But, I mean, I guess it’s good, at least I once again was able to expand my hassle-avoiding toolkit by learning what to look out for.

Which brings us to Treeside. It is a 5 minute walk to the station, has quite modern and attractive rooms, has a cafe on one side of the first floor and my favorite pizza place on the other side, a sound-proofed studio in the basement (which they aren’t putting to good use), and a rooftop balcony complete with barbecue set.

Sound good? Great. Book it.