English

Kurashi-juku Ofuru


■Features: Guests can experience the traditional Japanese lifestyle, including cooking with a traditional cooking stove kamado, making a fire to heat a Japanese old style bathtub goemon-buro, chopping wood, picking wild vegetables, playing in the river, planting and reaping rice, harvesting vegetables, and more to enjoy.

■How to get there: 20 minutes by car from Shōbara Bus Center, Bingo-Shōbara Station

■Pickup service: Yes

■Amenities: Shampoo, conditioner, soap, towel (only face towel is available for lending)
* Please bring your own toothbrush, toothpaste and pajamas.

■Price: JPY40,000 (room charge)
* Included dinner and breakfast (one guestroom, maximum 5 guests).
* Guests will be invited to cook (with a kamado) and enjoy the meals together with the hosts.
* Staying in a large group:

We also accept 6 or more guests in a group. In such case, we will provide 5 futon sets and guests are required to share the futons. An extra fee of JPY5,000 will be charged for each additional guest.
E.g.) 6 guests: JPY40,000 + (JPY5,000 x 1) = JPY45,000



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Kurashi-juku Ofuru is a small minshuku in the mountains of Hiroshima Prefecture.
Cooking with a kamado together, heating a goemon-buro, experiencing farm work that varies from season to season in the environment where the mobile phone is out of the service area. This is a little unusual accommodation that our guests will appreciate the unique Japanese lifestyle; picking wild vegetables and cooking immediately in spring, fishing in the river and harvesting vegetables in summer, foraging mushrooms and enjoying the colorful autumn leaves, playing with the snow and feeling the warmth of a hori-gotatsu (a table placed over a recessed floor) in winter. If the schedule permits, guests can also join us to experience the traditional rice farming such as planting rice, pulling weed, reaping and drying rice.
Only one group of guests is hosted every weekend (Saturday and Sunday).

We have our life here. We use a traditional kamado to cook food, heat the goemon-buro to bathe, use our outhouse, stay warm with a wood stove and a hori-gotatsu in the winter.

Inconvenient and troublesome, yet comfortable.
That is the real joy of Ofuru.

We would be happy if staying here could provide guests a chance to reflect the convenient lifestyles that we have long taken for granted.



[Example of itinerary]

* Day 1 *

●14:00 Checking-in, quick tour of Ofuru
We serve guests with Japanese tea and handmade or local specialty sweets.

●Enjoying the pleasure of daily life
Picking wild vegetables, collecting insects, harvesting vegetables, and more.
→ See the "photo" page.

●16:00 Heating a goemon-buro
We will teach you how to make a fire.

●Cooking with a kamado
Let's fire up the kamado with the method you just learned for the goemon-buro bathtub.

●19:00 Dinner
Let's say "itadakimasu" ("Let's eat!") together!

●20:00 Bath time
Lounging in the smooth and silky hot water like a hot spring. The secret of this refreshed feeling is only known to those who stayed here.
So perhaps you don't need lotion tonight?

●Around 22:00 Going to bed


* Day 2 *

●Around 7:00 Waking up
"Mum, I want to wake up early and go for a walk!" Even children who were so eager and excited may sleep so soundly and oversleep. We will discuss about the time you want to wake up before going to bed on the first day.

●Breakfast
Even people who do not usually eat breakfast will find the dishes stimulate your appetite.

●9:00 Enjoying the pleasure of daily life
Chopping wood, playing in the river, going out for a stroll, and more.
→ See the "photo" page.

●11:00 Ofuru Café, checking-out
Enjoying a cup of tea after working in the morning. We will also show you to our recommended local spots.

* The time is for your reference only. It may change depending on the situation.
* We also serve each family according to their needs.


[About our meals]

Kurashi-juku Ofuru adopts a style of cooking together using a kamado. Guests will be invited to cook rice in a traditional hagama rice cooker and make ichiju-sansai (one soup, three dishes). Using fire to cook means we have to work in a harmony with the fire. It requires more techniques to adjust the heat than to make a fire.
The energy of the firewood cut from the mountain of Ofuru becomes heat energy of a fire, making the food delicious. We can feel the flow of such energy.

We will discuss with guests about the menu one week before their stay. Our menus are always prepared with vegetables of the season.
Ingredients, seasonings, cooking utensils and tableware are prepared here at Ofuru.
Ingredients include organic rice that was naturally dried in the sun, fresh vegetables or river fish caught near Ofuru.
Seasonings are naturally-brewed and additive-free.
We also accommodate requests such as allergies and vegetarianism.

As for drinks, we provide japanese tea and water.
Guests may bring in their favorite drinks or alcohol.
Please strictly observe laws and moderation when drinking alcohol.

There is a portable gas stove and a refrigerator in the kitchen.
There is no microwave oven.


・●・●・●・ Examples of menus ・●・●・●・

<Spring>
Hagama-cooked rice
Vegetable stock miso soup
Tempura of freshly picked wild vegetables
Spring vegetable salad with cherry blossom dressing
Simmered Japanese butterbur fuki

<Summer>
Hagama-cooked rice
Braised miso soup
Char-grilled river fish
Local vegetables topped with oil miso
Fresh onion tossed with homemade pickled plum

<Autumn>
Hagama-cooked rice
Nameko mushroom and taro creamy soup
Bamboo steamer steamed seasonal vegetables served with apple cheese dip
Pumpkin with red beans
Stir-fried green pepper leaves

<Winter>
Hagama-cooked rice
Feast of winter! Botan hot pot (miso hot pot of wild boar meat)
Lotus root Hamburg steak
Pickled Japanese radish and carrot


[About the toilet]

The toilet at Kurashi-juku Ofuru is a Japanese style pit latrine located outside the house. Some people may feel it difficult to use this kind of toilet.

However, we dared to leave it as it is.
Letting the water carry things away, we will never know what lies ahead.
We have responsibility for both what we take in and give out.
This is what Kurashi-juku Ofuru always treasures.

* We provide an enamel potty for small children.

By the way, our children at Ofuru are using this pit latrine since they were about 3 years old.


●Notes●

- Mobiles are out of the service area.

- The whole building is non-smoking.
- There is no TV.
- Bathroom and toilet facilities are outside the building.
- Japanese style toilet (squat toilet) only.
- There is no shower in the bathroom.
- One medium-size dog and one tabby cat are kept outdoors.
- A lot of insects in summer (we will hang a mosquito net at night).
- There are no shops nearby. Please buy anything you need before check-in.
* The hosts can only speak simple English.