It’s a New Year! Huzzah! How was your new year? We had all sorts of yummy food. Traditionally, all shops are closed on the first of January, so they make enough food to last for a few days!
Anyway, the comic is a few days behind real life. The onsen was pretty cool, despite the nudity. There is a ticket machine where you put your money in, and it spits out an admission ticket. This is given to a bored Japanese man. I was confused why we had to buy a ticket and then give it to the bored Japanese man. Why didn’t we just give him the money? But apparently, this is how a lot of things work here. (We did the same with some ice cream place in the airport).
The onsen has two different areas, one for men and one for women. I obviously went to the men’s side because I’m not a pervert. Our locker room lead downstairs to a steamy area where the wall was lined with taps, shower heads on hoses, and white plastic seats. We sat on the plastic seat and vigorously bathed ourselves. Unlike the pools in North America, where they suggest we take a shower before bathing and no one does, this is actual bath time for a lot of people in Japan.
So I soaped myself down and washed myself with the shower hose. After this, we went into the hot spring itself. There was one on the inside and one on the outside. The inside one was quite hot, and what’s the point of hot springs if you can’t be outside so we moved there. We could hear the girls on the other side of the fence, and Steve was tempted to throw snowballs, however, there are signs forbidding such action.
It was a relaxing night, and honestly no different than naked hot tubs in the men’s locker room, but I don’t really like those either.
Happy New Year!
Hahaha onsen comic! When my parents told me what an onsen was I said there was no way I would be doing that. But I did…….