Bathing, Japanese style

And the end of Golden Week has come, in the blink of an eye! For my last day of rest, I really wanted to relax, and so I jumped on my bike and headed over to the bathhouse.

There are two types of bathhouses in Japan. An onsen is typically the bathing facilities surrounding hot springs, while a sento is a public bathing facility using regular tap water. The place I went to calls themselves an onsen, probably because some of the pools use genuine spring water.

Bathing is an interesting ritual in Japan. Due to small living quarters, it just isn't practical for many Japanese homes to have bathtubs. Also, because of its geographically active terrain, Japan is also home to many natural hot springs. As a result, going to the bath is a very popular activity, whether it's traveling for hours to an onsen town, or just staying local for some family time. A bathhouse is separated by gender, because everyone gets in naked! Wearing a bathing suit is frowned upon because the suit may contaminate the water. Also, rules against tattoos are very very strict, probably because of the yakuza. Anyone, male or female, will most likely be turned away from a bathhouse if there is a visible tattoo.

For a culturally conservative culture, Japanese people really don't have much modesty when it comes to being naked around their own gender. It's kind of comforting and freeing, in a way. I checked in my western inhibitions at the door, and after about 3 minutes, being naked around so many other women didn't bother me at all.

This local bathhouse is actually really nice. There's an outdoor and indoor area, both with multiple pools as well as several steam rooms and saunas. This is the sort of 'wet spa' that usually costs $30-40 to go to in New York. But here, I pay either $6.50 on weekdays, or $7.50 on weekends/holidays. And I can stay for as long as I want!

Of course, all pictures are taken from the website, as no cameras are allowed within the facility.

After buying my ticket from a vending machine, a receptionist hands me a key for a locker. I put all my belongings in there, and head over to the first order of business: taking a shower.

It may seem strange that a visitor would soap up prior to entering... more water, but it's actually an important step. Japanese people want the pool water to be very very clean, so they scrub every inch of themselves beforehand.

After getting squeaky clean, I used a couple of the interesting indoor facilities. One of the steam rooms has a big bowl of salt in the middle. You can take some of the heated salt, and use it to exfoliate your skin. It was kind of funny because the salt pretty much dissolved on contact, since my skin was so warm and damp already.

There are also two dry saunas. One of them looks like a regular sauna, with wooden benches you can sit on. The other one is rather interesting; it has partitions so you can lie down! I ended up not going in... I'm such a wimp when it comes to saunas and I didn't want to disturb the women inside by going in and then dashing out after just 2 minutes.

There is a hot pool AND a cold pool in the indoor area too. I saw little old ladies walk serenely out of a sauna and pretty much plunge into the ice cold pool... it was amazing. As for me, I just rinsed my toes whenever I got too hot!

One of my favorite spots at this bathhouse looks like two giant flower pots. It offers some privacy (although I've seen two friends get into one together), and the water isn't too hot. In addition, the new water trickling in makes a lovely sound. I almost fell asleep while sitting in this!

There are also two lovely rock-lined pools outside, filled with real spring water.

Another favorite pool of mine looks completely unassuming. But when you get in, it turns out that the water is carbonated and thousands of tiny air bubbles cling onto your skin. It feels slightly ticklish, in a good way. According to the website, this is supposed to be good for promoting blood circulation. No idea if that is true, but this was definitely the most crowded pool in the bathhouse!

I've only described about half the things you can do at this facility. It's easy to see how someone can spend a whole afternoon (or evening) there! I definitely had a very relaxing time; the whole atmosphere is very conducive to leisurely movement. This was a great way to bring Golden Week to a close... it's back to the grind tomorrow!

I didn't have beef in Kobe

Another beautiful Spring day in Japan... time to hop on over to another nearby city! But first, a big breakfast to get started...

Need energy... scrambled eggs, rolls, and mini
sausages!

I decided to head over to Kobe today. While it's probably best known for its cattle (Kobe beef!), this city is also famous for its sake breweries and the Arima Hot Springs. Funny enough, I didn't hit either of those locations today, and yet still had a fantastic time. :)

Kobe city center, near the Sannomiya station

Interestingly, Kobe felt very different from Osaka. While there were also copious amounts of tourists, Kobe felt international in a way that Osaka doesn't. Maybe it was the bistros and cafes, or the small bespoke shops...? While lunch sets of tea and cakes tempted me, I resisted because I was on a mission: to find Chinatown!

Kobe's Chinatown (called Nankinmachi) was about a 20 minute stroll away from the main train station.

I found it!

This was purely a tourist's Chinatown, with no businesses geared towards locals in sight. Instead, the narrow street was jammed full of food stalls, all weirdly selling similar fare. It was all northern cuisine from what I could gather (dumplings, Peking duck, Shanghai dumplings, mapo tofu), sprinkled with old standby dishes (fried rice, spring rolls, shumai). None of it actually looked very good, to my disappointment. My dreams of a chow fun lunch sadly drifted away.

The streets were mobbed!

Oh well! After Chinatown, I decided to head up... literally. Kobe is a seaport town surrounded by mountains, which is one of my favorite scenery combinations. A cable car line was nearby and I couldn't pass up the chance to ride in one.

A cable car! They call this a "ropeway", which sounds
so distressingly fragile!

Eeep! The cable car went up faster than I anticipated.
Slightly scary to see the ground moving away!

Getting a beautiful view as the cable car ascends

Looking down at a waterfall. Visitors can hike up, but
I decided to do the walking downhill instead.

The cable car ride only took about 5 minutes, but seemed much longer as we zoomed upwards. Once I reached the top though, I was greeted with a pretty garden to browse through.

Pretty gardens and pretty scenery!

The Glassshouse. There are pretty plants here, and also
a nice exhibition on herbs and spices.

The roses weren't in bloom, but there were some gorgeous flowers
on display.

I think this is a poppy?

Peaceful places to sit and rest inside the greenhouse

At the back of the greenhouse, there was a small public herbal footbath. It only cost 100 yen to sit and relax there, and I could't resist ! The water was hot and soothing, great for my tired feet.

Hm. On second thought, I hope there weren't too many germs in this!

As I relaxed, I was also treated with this fantastic view:

City of Kobe, waaaay down below

After a 10 minute soak, I was ready to head downhill. Part of the walk was down a paved path, but as I got closer to the bottom, there was about 15 minutes of cobblestone steps to descend. This was surprisingly hard on my knees!

Heading down

Towards the bottom, I passed by the waterfall I first saw from the cable car. It was pretty neat to have seen it from two completely different angles. The waterfall was really beautiful, and if I didn't have a train to catch, I'm sure I could have sat there for a long time!

Nunobiki waterfall

It seemed amazing that all this nature was just steps away from a bustling city. Kobe was a great little city to visit, very much worth my sore feet and knees! Golden Week is sadly winding down, and so I will try to do some relaxing things in the next couple days before I have to head back to work!

Osaka Castle

I had originally planned on taking a very ambitious trip up to a nearby mountain, but for some reason really didn't want to take a long train journey today. So instead, I stayed in town and visited a local attraction: Osaka Castle. But first I stopped to have a filling breakfast, of course!

My hearty breakfast: English muffin, fried egg, banana, and tea!

Osaka-Jo is a very famous castle, one that played a major historical role back in the sixteenth century. This was no luxury building though; it was built for wartime, with thick high walls and a wide moat to keep intruders out.

Osaka Castle in the distance. From the outer park area, it took almost
15 minutes to walk to the castle proper.

Japanese people and their funny tree trimming. :)

Getting closer! These are the outer walls, with a wide moat in between.

Finally there! Although it's a reconstruction, the
outside of the castle looks pretty yet imposing.

It cost 600 yen to enter the castle itself, which stores some historical artifacts. I paid and went in, although I don't know if it was exactly worth the money since most of the audio commentary was in Japanese and photos weren't allowed on several floors. It was still cool though, to see old wartime letters that were exchanged between armies, with lots of political maneuverings and betrayals thrown in.

There was an observatory on top of the castle that provided a nice view of downtown Osaka:

Hilariously, a visitor can also pay an extra 300 yen to dress up in a samurai costume and have their picture taken. There were a surprising number of Chinese tourists; I may have heard more Mandarin inside the castle than I did Japanese. The funniest thing I overheard today though was in Cantonese. An obviously from Hong Kong tourist was taking a picture of some random tree, and commented to their companion that it had some medicinal use. Then she expressed surprise that the mainland tourists had not stolen all of it already. I could not help but giggle as I passed by!

This was a rather short excursion, but I'm still glad I got to see one of Osaka's more famous landmarks. My Golden Week vacation is now half over already! I have a few more day trips I'd like to make, so let's hope the weather holds up!