This weekend I took a trip to the quaint town of Gero, which is known for onsen (hot springs) and about 2 hours away from Nagoya by car. Here is cute river with several small waterfalls that runs through the center of the city.
My friends from the International Volleyball Club (and 2 daughters). We had a really fun day!
We're ready to eat lunch!
My lunch is special tempura with vegetables only available in the spring! There are 5 types of deep-fried green veggies on my plate, but I'm not really sure I can tell them apart!
The girls show off their chopsticks skills before they dive into their soba noodles.
Yuko and her fish lunch!
The restaurant was small and very Japanese, but we were clueless about all of these mushrooms covering this one wall. Kinda bizarre...
Kerri and her 2 new pint-sized friends!
Before the onsen, we walked around Gero and went to Gassho Village, which was filled with artifacts from ancient Japan.
Here is a good example of a 7-tier doll set that might be displayed in a Japanese home during Hina Matsuri (Girls Day celebrated on March 3rd).
Learning all sorts of amazing things about old Japan.
A zen garden... I kind of wanted to jump in the rocks and just mess up the pattern!!
More gardens of the village.
Finally, we made it to the onsen. The hot springs are caused by a volcano and come directly from the earth. The water is not circulated or diluted in any way. Onsen is said to have healing power and be very relaxing.
Here is the process:
1. Choose an onsen and pay a small fee (~$5).
2. Go in the changing room and disrobe completely.
3. Go into the onsen room where you first sit on a stood and wash your self from head to toe at the regular water taps. (Basically shower in public!)
4. Once you are clean, go soak in the 47 C mineral water. (That's about 117 F... and in my opinon wicked hot!!)
We had the entire onsen room to ourselves, so I didn't have to worry too much about the whole "bathing naked in public" thing. And I didn't have a bunch of old saggy Japanese women leering at me either. The naked part wasn't too bad; it was the heat that was killer for me. I could only stay fully emerged for about 5 minutes. Then I would sit on the side of the tub or get out completely and rest on one of the bathing stools. Kind of reminds me of sitting in a sauna... Excrutiating hot and breathing can be difficult.
I was amazed that the kids loved the onsen so much! They were the first ones naked, washed, and jumped in the scalding water. Although they did jump in and out a lot I was still impressed they could handle it so well. We stayed in the onsen room for about 1.5 hours.
At the end, you are not supposed to rinse the onsen water off you, the fresh mineral water should soak into your skin and help you be relaxed and healed for the rest of the day.
Tarynn, Yuko, and Kerri resting after our onsen experience!
