I Joined the Kinosaki Onsen Workation Retreat
On March 1, 2024, as winter was beginning to end, I joined a workation retreat held in Kinosaki. It was a two-night, three-day stay, and I headed home on March 3. The organizer was kazamori. I have been helping with their work for the past few years, and this was my second time participating in the retreat. Since it has been held twice so far, that means I have participated in all of them.
Kinosaki is a hot spring town famous for Naoya Shiga's short novel "At Kinosaki," and the nearest station is also called "Kinosaki Onsen." I will write about this workation retreat for a while, dividing it into several themes as follows.
- I Joined the Kinosaki Onsen Workation Retreat (prologue, this article)
- The Inn and the Night at the Kinosaki Onsen Workation
- Morning Bath and Breakfast at the Kinosaki Onsen Workation
- Trying to Build an App for VisionOS (Kinosaki Onsen Workation Results Slides)
A Prologue
Kinosaki Onsen is in Hyogo Prefecture and is also close to the Sea of Japan. I live in Chiba Prefecture, so it is fairly far away, and I need to transfer between several trains to get there.
Broadly speaking, the options are to go by train or by plane. The plane route is shorter in total time, but it involves quite a lot of waiting, and the time spent riding vehicles gets broken up, so this time I decided to use trains for both the outbound and return trips.
A typical train route is to take the "Nozomi" from Tokyo, then transfer in Kyoto to a limited express such as the "Hashidate" or "Kounotori" and head to Kinosaki Onsen. Incidentally, "Hashidate" comes from the famous "Amanohashidate," so if the timing works, it is possible to go sightseeing there as well.
Taking this route takes about six hours one way. That makes how to spend time on the train very important. Since my goal this time was to try building an app for VisionOS, what I needed to do on the train was study for that.
This time I brought the Mac mini I had just bought as my main PC. Between Tokyo and Kyoto, there are power outlets on the train, so it would not be impossible to connect an external display and study, but I did not feel like setting up a desktop PC on the Shinkansen. Instead, I decided to use the 12-inch MacBook I brought as a secondary PC.
This 12-inch MacBook was reasonably fast when I bought it, but it is a pre-Apple silicon Mac, and at this point I cannot deny that it feels underpowered. Of course, it cannot be used for VisionOS development.
However, Xcode does launch, so I can study Swift and similar topics. So while charging it on the train, I studied and looked into the concepts of VisionOS app structure, and eventually arrived at Kinosaki Onsen.
Kinosaki Onsen Is a Town Where Modern and Old Mix Together
As soon as you leave Kinosaki Onsen Station, a street that feels like a hot spring town begins. There are old buildings, and there are also modern cafes. Fish shops that seem aimed at tourists are everywhere, and because it was just crab season, live crabs were lined up in front of the shops.
The especially popular kind is "Matsuba crab."
This was my second time in Kinosaki Onsen, but the previous time I came during a warmer season, so I did not encounter crab. That said, coming in a warm season has its own good points: many people walking around town were wearing yukata. This time it was deep winter, so there were not many people walking outside in yukata.
There is only one convenience store in town. There used to be one in another location, but it seems to have disappeared. Even though it is a convenience store, the building uses subdued colors that do not damage the scenery.
After walking for a while along the lively street in front of the station, you reach a gently flowing river. It is the Otani River. Willows are planted on both banks. If it were not winter, you could feel the atmosphere of willows swaying in the wind, but at this time of year they are only branches, looking cold as the snow blows against them.
Ryokan inns and souvenir shops line this river, so it is an area you definitely want to walk through when you visit Kinosaki Onsen. Several bridges cross the river, and perhaps because they are photogenic, groups of young people were gathering and taking photos.