Since I didn't bother to write down the name of our hotel, this post will assume a generic nature, but may still be of use to those that are planning similar trips because I believe our experience was typical (this was second time doing the hot spring thing in Japan; similarities outweighed differences). There are plenty of resources on the web (with pictures) to help you select a destination and book rooms. My girlfriend chose our particular hotel because: 1) they had rooms with actual beds; and 2) some of the rooms --including ours-- had private pools.

The drive up took around 2 hours, but would have been less than 1.5 hours, were it not for all those rest stops (Japanese rest areas are similar to the travel centers on 1-95 between DC and NYC.)

Once we arrived at the hotel, we left our shoes at the door, put on slippers, and marched towards our room (you don't really need to bring too many belongings inside because the hotels supply lots of toiletries and cotton robes to wear).

It was an old hotel (keys as opposed to key cards and stairs as opposed to elevators), but the TV was every bit as nice as the one in the ANA Hotel from the previous night.

The room consisted of a bathroom, a bedroom with 2 twin beds, a separate dining / tv room, and an outdoor deck with a big tub, a foot tub, and an outdoor shower.

We changed into our robes (more elegant than those at my spa in Beijing, but the same concept) and then readied for dinner (which my girlfriend had ordered at check-in). At 6:30, food started to arrive. And it kept on coming until around 9. In short, we ate and drank for almost 3 hours straight. By the time all was said and done, we were ready to crash, and we did. I slipped in a quick soak before sleeping though. FYI, while tipping is not common in Japan, I'm told that you're supposed to tip the head waitress (I apologize if there's a more appropriate term to describe this person). We only had 5k and 10k notes so we went with the former, but that was probably a bit generous.

The next morning, we awoke to a breakfast that was a scaled down version of the previous nights dinner. My main takeaway was that hot springs are more about food than soaking. All in all, we had a nice time.