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| Nasu, spring river |
I decided to take a few days and head up to the mountains, for some fresh cool air, possible snow? and hot-springs.
I found a place that is an affiliate for my company, and got this insanely cheap rate of $8 a night. I figured that the place would be a dump, but I didn't care. After all, I was going for the nature part of it. It was actually a
very nice place!
In Japan most all of the resort-like areas such as Nasu are very old style Ryokan hotels. This means that they have a single room with tatami mats all around, maybe a TV in the corner if you are lucky, and a single table that serves your eating needs, and whatnot.
These rooms also have a huge closet, which is used for storage for your bedding. Sometimes it's a do-it-yourself hotel, (like this one) where you have to pull out the thin mattress, lay it on the floor, cover it with a sheet, and you are ready to either rock-and-roll or well, rock yourself to sleep ;)
These hotels have a shared bathroom. When you need to go just slip into your high priced looking robe and go on down to the bathroom. It's interesting that all the hotels like this require you to wear some undersized slippers. My feet are big so half my foot always hangs out the back and look a bit silly. I'm reminded of watching those silly clowns at the circus, except in reverse. When you get to the bathroom, you have to change out of your house slippers and into the toilet slippers. I guess they don't want you to contaminate?
The best part is the Onsen or hot spring bath. They are generally made out of wood, and are pretty large. These tubs are filled to the very brink with 45-50 deg C water. Believe me it's extremely hot. For me, being a gaijin (foreigner), it's almost completely unbearably hot.
There are some funky rules you need to know before going to an Onsen. First, you can't have any tattoos. The Japanese feel that this is very Taboo, and link to Yakuza (Mafia), and so normally not welcome, although you could be sneaky. I've never seen one of the hotel staff inside of the Onsen myself.
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| On top of the world - Nasu, Japan - Hand held HDRI |
To get into the Onsen, you must take a shower first. Japanese showers are awesome. They have these beautiful woman all pawning over you and scrubbing you. haha, just kidding. They are big fat ugly MEN, no just kidding again. You have to do that yourself ;) Also they have these little stools you can sit down on while you shower. Nice! After all is said and done, then you can get into the Onsen. Sometimes you get lucky an no one is there. Still, other times, they are filled with lots of slobbering drunks. It's hit or miss with the timing.
Always at the Ryokan however, people fall back into their Japanese "roots". People are amazingly polite and well spoken here. They take pride in how things used to be and want to somehow infuse themselves in the real culture again, as they soak their PSN's (siatic nerves) so as to soak up as much spirit of Japan as possible before heading back into reality and work.
As I traveled around, I saw many places like this, where there was smoke billowing up from the rocks. This is due to the constantly active nature of the Volcanoes, boiling off water, etc.
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| Foot of the moutain. Wooden bridges. |
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| View from the Mountain |
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| Fall Leaves in Nasu |
There is something really amazing about an Onsen, if you can bear the heat. It feels like you are numbing your PSN, and become SOoooo relaxed. I guess because of the sheer magnitude of the heat involved. You have to get passed the initial shock :)
Once you get out and start walking about and exploring, you will generally find the scenery is beautiful. Especially in the fall, when the leaves are all manner of Red, Orange, and Yellow.
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| Fall Leaves in Nasu - HDRI |
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Overall, I had a extremely great time, and came back feeling so relaxed.
I highly recommend going to an Onsen resort area if you ever make it to Japan! It should be on your top 3 things to do whilst in Japan.
