YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
Totonoi Retreat — Meat × Sauna × Onsen
A one-of-a-kind experience of totonoi, on a day visit.
A Shinshu gibier meat lunch × a serious sauna led by our aufguss master Patch × free-flowing hot spring water. A “half-day retreat” worth travelling a long way for.
Concept
As a cook, and as an aufguss master — Patch has not chosen “one or the other”, but pushed both as far as they go. The day-use plan he has built is made of
· a proper löyly and aufguss show
· meat dishes using Shinshu Premium beef and gibier
· free-flowing hot spring water
— three elements designed as a single flow.
Not only “settling”. Not only “eating”. Every part of the experience connects, and stays with you afterwards. A “half-day sauna retreat” you can taste only here, for you.
Schedule — about 4 hours
Length: about 4 hours (10:50–15:00) / Capacity: 8 groups a day, up to 10 people
10:50–11:00
We show you to the Forest Sauna. This is the doorway out of ordinary life.
11:00–11:10
Ginger, chilli and herbs blended together. A welcome drink to bring the sweat up from the inside.
11:10–11:15
So that first-timers can enjoy it with confidence, we explain the basics of how to go in, and the etiquette.
11:15–12:00
Birch löyly, and cooling off in the air of the forest. Feel your senses sharpening.
12:00–12:25
Four groups a day only. The aufguss, using our own aroma blend, is a whole-body experience of scent, sound and heat.
12:25–13:00
Natural hot spring water exactly as it comes, neither heated nor circulated, to deepen what the sauna has left behind.
13:00–14:00
A steak don of Shinshu Premium beef, and botan-nabe wild boar hotpot made with gibier. A wild, nourishing plate, tasted in the forest.
14:00–
Spend the quiet time after the meal in the lounge, or go round the hot springs a minute’s walk from MATSUKAWAKAN.
15:00
At the end of the trip, our staff will tell you about local products and their recommendations.
Lunch
So that it reaches a settled body in its most delicious form. The lunch Patch finishes as a cook, working with the produce of Shinshu, is a plate at once strong and gentle, where nourishment and the smell of the grill live together. The menu on the day is as follows.
01
Made with Shinshu Premium beef. Grilled over charcoal, then seared again to layer the aroma — a steak don, taken a step further. The flavour of the meat spreads as you chew, and soaks into a body fresh from the sauna.
02
Wild boar taken locally, simmered in a miso dashi with plenty of root vegetables and mushrooms. A gibier hotpot with a quiet, powerful taste, as if you were taking in the nourishment of the mountains directly.
03
As well as white rice, we serve a finishing zosui rice porridge. You can taste what the sauna left behind down to the last drop.
04
We serve a sweet chosen for the season. The moment after the meal settles you gently too.
Forest Sauna
Time given over to the heat and the scent of the sauna, in a silence surrounded by trees. The “Forest Sauna” is MATSUKAWAKAN’s sauna with open-air cooling, designed to make use of the natural lie of the land and the breathing of the trees. Into a rough-hewn space built of hinoki cypress boards, the heat of the stove and a birch löyly deliver warmth deeply and slowly.
The temperature is about 90°C. Under Patch’s careful attendance, using a spice aroma blended for this experience alone, we send you a hot, comfortable wind. The sound of the löyly, the wrap of the steam, and then the wind of the forest that follows. Sight and sense sharpen little by little, and the border between body and nature slowly comes undone.
This is a place not only to be put right, but to return to. Please experience the essence of totonoi, where you and nature become one.
Why Patch
Why Patch makes this experience.
His career as an aufguss master is only half a year old. In that time, though, a number of well-known guests have visited MATSUKAWAKAN and praised Patch’s aufguss.
He holds the aufguss master certification and has competed in the Neppa Koshien aufguss championship. This is not aufguss as a form, but the real thing, delivering heat properly. Come and feel a sharpened gust of wind unlike that of any ordinary aufguss master.
Patch is also a cook with a chef’s licence. For this meat lunch, he sources the Shinshu ingredients himself and takes responsibility for everything from preparation to the finished plate.
“I want to serve food in its most delicious state, right after the sauna.” From that thought came an experience where totonoi and a feast connect. Heat, scent and taste, all of them considered — please come and taste this half day.
Plan
| Plan name | Meat × sauna × onsen Totonoi Retreat |
|---|---|
| Dates | Every Saturday, Sunday and public holiday * Weekdays on request (possible for groups of 3 or more) |
| Time | 10:50–15:00 (length: about 4 hours) |
| Capacity | A small-group format: up to 8 groups and 10 people a day |
| Price | ¥7,200 per person (tax included) |
| What is included | · A proper löyly and aufguss show by Patch · The Forest Sauna · A bath in the free-flowing hot spring · The meat lunch of Shinshu Takayama Bowl and botan-nabe wild boar hotpot |
Prices are subject to change; please confirm on the booking site.
FAQ & Access
| Where it is held | The TOJI.ba MATSUKAWAKAN (Takayama Village, Kamitakai District, Nagano) Free parking available (10 spaces) |
|---|---|
| What to bring | · A change of clothes and a towel for the sauna · A sauna hat if you use one, and a drink to keep hydrated (on sale here) |
| Please note | · Please do not use the sauna straight after drinking alcohol · If you are pregnant or have a condition such as high blood pressure, please consult your doctor before using the sauna · For the cancellation policy, please see the booking page |
Guest Reviews
★★★★★
I chose it as an inn where everything my partner loves — sauna, hot springs and gibier — would come true. The Tenku Sauna was private for two hours. We could settle at ease with no one watching. The wild boar stew and the steak at dinner were both superb, and then the mushroom hotpot too… a happy evening. We got carried away with the retro games as well, and it became a day I will remember.
— R.K. (couple / birthday trip)
★★★★★
I came for the sauna, but there was too much to enjoy — the hot springs, the food, the retro games. The open-air bath while watching the stars was moving. The rice porridge in the morning was gentle and comforting. An inn I would recommend to my sauna-loving friends. Next time I want two nights!
— H.M. (trip with friends)
★★★★★
I panicked when I realised at check-out that my wallet was missing… but the staff searched with me, on the shuttle bus, in the large bath, even at the sauna… in the end it was at the soba restaurant, but I cannot forget their kindness. This is an inn with human warmth, not only saunas.
— M.S. (couple)
* These are some of the reviews actually posted on Google
* The number of places we can offer is limited, so please check early.
We also have a day-use plan with the Forest Sauna and the hot spring, and a private-room lunch that makes the hot spring free when you order it.
Reservation
The one-of-a-kind experience of totonoi — meat × sauna × onsen — on a day visit.
The number of places we can offer is limited, so please check early.