Research about Japan online is quite difficult. There just isn't that many reviews of places, I assume because a lot of places wouldn't be easily ventured by non-Japanese speakers and similarly my Japanese skills aren't good enough to read through any non-English reviews (if they exist at all). One of the comforting generalisations is that I think most Japanese food experiences are of good quality and so the chances of randomly coming across an alluring tourist trap is quite low. I suppose the real reason to try and look into where you want to go and what they offer is simply because most of these Japan-specific experiences are quite expensive and noone likes costly surprises.
In any case in deciding upon an onsen to soak a few days of stress away, Fujiyoshi (with its two reviews) seemed like a good bet. Tucked away in the onsen district of Ito, few tourists would ever venture to this area. In fact the hostess of the onsen confirmed practically all their guests are Japanese.
Part of the appeal is the large public onsen overlooking the coastline (although it was too cold in January to safely use this) but also the 3 private onsen for guests to enjoy shaded from howling winds and rain. Purely from an onsen point of view, I can certainly promote this place as worth a detour and a couple of days of unwinding. But this blog is primarily about food experiences - and Fujiyoshi is sensational on that front.
The photos are combined from 2 breakfasts and 2 dinners - both days of meals certainly had similarities with subtle differences to keep things interesting. In any case the food was of such high quality, repeat dishes were welcome.
Breakfast was far from the traditional cold fish and rice that I've had at a previous ryokan. Fujiyoshi served a sushi plate of various nigiri (including ootoro & scallop), coal-grilled fish, scallops & mollusc, lobster miso soup (using the lobster leftover from the previous night's dinner) and rice. The highlight was clearly the miso-cooked ootoro - fatty tuna belly coated with miso, the fish flesh cooked through but so fatty that it dissolved into a sweet miso/tuna mouthful. Far better than Nobu's famous miso cod.
Dinner was an exercise in greed, but a more acceptable sin than wasting anything. A large sashimi platter was headlined by a local variety of snapper (the name escapes me) which is much softer with less crunchy bite than the usual tai I'm used to. A variety of hot and cold sides using prawns, crab, noodles, tempura, chawanmushi, vegetables and pickles made the meal complete. We also opted for the special supplement that enabled us on the first dinner to add lobster and abalone sashimi (live fresh from their own tanks), as well as grilled lobster and abalone. The second dinner we opted to stay with grilled versions only, and as a result were served a huge lobster. Not at all an expensive addition given the cost of lobster and abalone (especially sashimi) everywhere else in the world and also that I hadn't seen it offered in Japan before.
Next time I would order the same package again - I think that you need one full uninterrupted day to enjoy the onsen, relax in the common areas, walk around the complex and even possibly around the town. That could either be arriving first thing in the morning and spending a whole day there, otherwise having two nights to not have the feeling of rushing your experience. The dinner supplement for lobster and abalone is a necessary expense that you will be thankful for, and although the meals are large note that Fujiyoshi does not serve lunch (we were given a few snacks and tea to keep us going).