Interesting... I just figured the few closed hotels and empty buildings i saw were the usual leftover 90's bubble burst junk.. There was none of it visible in our hike and only a little of it in the river trip. I recall now that both the hike and the river trip were downriver from Kinugawa Onsen which might be a bit better than Kinugawa Onsen itself. Personally I didn't find it too obtrusive, of course I didnt really spend much time exploring the town. Generally when I'm at an onsen i spend much of my time in hot water :-) I did a bit of wandering around one old hotel that was near ours (just the outside though), as i'm a bit weird and like exploring old buildings.

The hotel we stayed at was actually pretty nice and clean though obviously not "new" (it was much better than the one i stayed at in Kyoto though).. The baths areas were clean and well kept. I also recall the dinner was incredible. The food was good and just kept coming and coming.. by the time the rice (with local mushrooms!! YUM!) came I was too full to have more than a little bit.. We ended up saving it for onigiri the next day.. :-) I can't recall the name of our hotel, but i can check with my friend to see if she can recall.

According to this page, at least part of the hike we took was Ryuokyo Ravine, which was very nice and not too taxing. It was also not completely "railed off" or "paved over" like many places i've been to in japan.

The worst part of the whole trip was the "monkey and deer mountain" ropeway. A tourist trap of the worst kind bundled into the river trip for an extra 1000Y. I say skip it... :-)

_m