Kichijoji Utsukushi No Yu Onsen, November 16th, 2012

To my pleasant surprise, one of my very good friends from university got a job in Tokyo and moved here in the beginning of fall. She moved to an area north of central Tokyo called Kichijoji, a quaint neighborhood famous for its big, beautiful park as well as its abundance of places to shop and eat. On a gorgeous Friday in autumn, my friend invited me to try an onsen called Utsukushi No Yu, or Beautiful Springs. After a pleasant hour-long journey by train to the Kichijoji area, I arrived at Takaido station on the Keio Inokashira line. After meeting up and getting lost for a little while, my friend and I finally found the place we were looking for.

Utsukushi No Yu is located inside a humongous fitness club and seemed to be overrun by sprightly old ladies. After placing your shoes in a special locker and buying a ticket for bathing at a complicated vending machine, you are given another locker in which to place your things and change. The locker room for the onsen and the gym are the same, so it is a pretty busy place. I have to admit that I felt a little overwhelmed when I first stepped inside and had to start dodging people hurrying to get to their Pilates class. Thusfar, it had not been the most tranquil of onsen experiences.

The entrance to the bath is a simple sliding door. Upon opening it, a steam cloud puffs into your face and the sound of bathers chatting happily entices you to come in. The bathing facilities are quite large, and I think that I would have been really uncomfortable had I been alone. There are six or seven different types of baths to choose from, and after washing off with the provided shampoo and soap, you are ready to hop in to any one of them. My friend and I tried the indoor bath first. It was a comfortable temperature and a very spacious tub. The water throughout the baths had a slightly brown hue to it, and the extremely high sodium content makes this one of the saltiest onsens I have ever been to. With low alkaline levels, this onsen is particularly good for physical ailments of the body such as muscle pain or joint stiffness which might explain why my friend and I were the only ones under 50 years old.

Soaking in the hot outdoor bath under a crisp and azure autumn sky while red and yellow leaves float gracefully down from the trees above was such a relaxing feeling.

Utsukushi No Yu is typically the kind of onsen I try to avoid when I am alone. I tend to go to older and stinker springs because of the "local" ambiance that comes with them, but every now and then it is good to get away from what you are used to. This onsen was gorgeous and provided a wonderful atmosphere to catch up while soaking the aches and pains of life away. For 900 yen, you get a wide variety of baths to try, shampoo, soap, and a pretty decent powder room. I wouldn't mind coming here again, provided that someone comes with me!

The friends who bathe together stay together!!!

Hakone Taikouyu Onsen, November 11th, 2012

After what seemed like an 100 year drive to the base of Mount Fuji, my three friends and I were extremely disappointed to find that the great mountain was hidden behind a thick veil of white clouds and ice cold rain. After all the time, effort, and gasoline spent getting to the mountain in the first place, we decided that our journey was not going to be in vain. About an hour southwest of Fujisan, there is a very popular onsen area called Hakone.
Hakone is an area in north Kanagawa prefecture which is blessed with an abundance of onsen as well as breathtaking natural beauty. It is a famous getaway location for people tired of the hustle and bustle of Tokyo life. After a long drive and the shock of not being able to see Mount Fuji, my friends and I decided that the next best thing would be a dip in one of Hakone's famous springs to warm up before the commute home in the drizzly cold.

When I think Hakone, I think gorgeous resort bath houses, wooden tubs, and gazing at spectacular scenery while reclining in the outdoor bath. This was not the case. After a futile search for such a place in a dying iphone, the driver ended up pulling off the road and into the parking lot of the first place we saw, 太閤湯, Taikou yu. We were first "greeted" by a short-haired grumpy granny flagging us down from the entrance of the simple facility. From behind a sliding door, the scowling proprietor curtly told us where to park in the three space lot. This was clearly not the gorgeous onsen experience I was anticipating, but I have to admit that I was intrigued. The building is a modest two story concrete structure which sits on a ledge overlooking a river which could be heard but not seen in the black and rainy night. Because of the weather and the fact that I forgot to, I couldn't take any pictures so I pulled a few off the internet.

Immediately upon entering, the grumpy granny from before instructed us to remove our shoes and place them in a wooden shoe box. We then had to buy individual tickets from a tired looking vending machine. Each person paid 400 yen and was provided with nothing except access to the facility. We made our way into the small locker room and began to get ready to bathe.

This particular onsen, as I learned from the other bathers, is located at the exact source of the spring which feeds many other different baths, luxurious resorts and modest facilities alike. Because of this reason, the water is HOT. Like...156 degrees Fahrenheit (69 degrees Celsius) hot. It is impossible to get in without adjusting the temperature constantly with the faucets. I found that to be a bit annoying, but I was glad to find an onsen outside of Beppu which was up to my standard of hot.

The bathing area was very small with only one area to clean yourself before entering. Space was tight, and I had to wait for two other people to finish rinsing off before I could start. There was no shampoo provided, but there was a communal bar of soap sitting in a pink plastic basket.

The onsen is a very common sodium-cholride spring which has wonderful effects on skin ailments. The smell was very neutral because of its proximity to the origin. As I would later find out, other onsen fed from the same spring down the road tend to have more of a sulfuric smell, though I could not fathom why. When attempting to do my taste assessment, I was scalded, thus preventing me from making a proper analysis. Boo.

From start to finish, my experience at Taikou yu was very pleasant. The grouchy granny and friendly patrons, the scuzzy ambiance and the boiling hot temperatures were all part of what makes this place so great. At 400 yen, you get a nice hot bath and a one of a kind experience. What makes this place even more great is that this is not some fancy resort with 12 different kinds of baths and a Korean beauty salon, it is the neighborhood social spot. A place where Hakone locals go to avoid tourists. It is a place for serious bathing and community bonding. We were lucky to find this gem of an onsen, and I hope I will have the opportunity to go again some day.

Kamata Kuroyu Onsen, October 29th, 2012

When I first decided to move to Tokyo, I was considering living in a part of town called Kamata. Kamata is on the border of Tokyo and Kanagawa prefecture and is really close to Haneda Airport. I found a pretty decent and reasonably priced place and was pretty set on moving in...until I heard from my Tokyo-ite friends that Kamata is the shady part of Tokyo. Keep in mind that "shady" in Japan is about as scary as the Haunted Mansion ride in Disney Land, but still...something deterred me and I ended up choosing somewhere else.

Boy did I make a mistake!

Within Tokyo, Ota ward, the ward which Kamata is in, is famous for having excellent hot springs. The most interesting thing about the onsens located here is that unlike the many volcanic hot springs I have visited in my time, this one is fed by waters which are filtered through bits of leaves and plants buried a gajillion years ago. This gives the water a distinct 'green' smell and an interesting blackish brown color, similar to coffee.

The spa I chose was located in a run-down looking hotel right in front of the station. The hotel itself was built in the 50's or 60's and has been locally run by the same family since that time. The lobby is pretty small and looks more like an old man's living room than a hotel. There are colorful tiffany lamps all over and a big round kitchen table in the center with free iced tea. Soft music and lots of personal pictures make you feel immediately at home, and I had a hard time resisting the urge to hug the old couple who were running the front desk.

The fee for bathing was more expensive than I'm used to coming from Beppu, but it is quite normal for Tokyo. For 1,050 yen you get two towels, a toothbrush and toothpaste, disposable razor, comb, locker key, and an hour and a half in the bath. I had never been to a black onsen before, so I have to admit that I was a little freaked out by the murky color. You can't see the bottom of the bath and I was worried that it would stain me somehow.

After smelling the earthy, mellow aroma rising up from the bath, I was 100% fully convinced I had to get in whether it stained me or not. After a quick shower, I was pleasantly surprised by how lovely the bath turned out to be.

I was told once by another onsen enthusiast that part of understanding onsen is to understand their taste. Every type has a different taste, just as it has a different smell, temperature, color, etc. For those of you who wish to try, I cannot stress enough the importance of DRINKING FROM THE FAUCET not from the bathwater. This particular onsen had a very sweet flavor at first which quickly changed to a bitter and metallic taste that stayed in my mouth long after I was done. I guess the taste must be affected by one or both of these factors; ①Plants and fossils through which the water is filtered ② Rusty pipes from a rotting infrastructure. I hope it was the former!

After the bath, I felt so relaxed and warm from the inside out. My skin was silky smooth and the redness in my facial complexion seemed to have been reduced a bit. My aches and pains from a long night shift the day before were melted away and I felt nimble and light. I was close to Nirvana for hours after.

Kamata Kuroyu Onsen at Suehiro Hotel was WONDERFUL. My one complaint would be that I wish the water was a bit warmer. It was somewhere in the low 40s and I prefer a slightly hotter bath. Though it is a little pricey, I felt completely satisfied. I will be going again for sure.

So What's The Point?

It was the summer of 2006 when I first experienced onsen culture. I was 17 years old and on a language immersion program in Hokkaido, Japan. The family who was keeping me for the three months I was there tried to explain to me where we were going and what we were doing. Due to my lack of Japanese language skills at the time however, I had not a clue what was going on. Long story short; I stripped, I bathed, my world changed.

I guess I should have started by explaining what onsen actually is. For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, onsen is the Japanese word for hot springs. The country is a hotbed (no pun intended) for geothermal/volcanic activity, and the Japanese have taken advantage of their magma-tastic country. Pools of hot, pungent, mineral enriched water are literally all over the country, and Japanese have enjoyed bathing in these for generations.

The point of this blog, however, is NOT about Japanese onsen culture nor is it really for you to learn something or be entertained. The point of this blog is that I, Genevieve, am on a quest to be an ONSEN MASTER, and I would like to document my experiences.

With a slow start and much time wasted while I lived in Beppu, the city with the most geothermic activity in Japan, I will have to start here in Tokyo and work my way back to Beppu to truly achieve my goal of being an onsen master.

After collecting 88 stamps of different onsen in Beppu city in a special "spaport", the government of Beppu will give all successful onsen maniacs the most coveted BLACK TOWEL.

Since moving to Tokyo last winter, I really regret not taking more time to go around and experience all the different types of onsen Beppu has to offer. I don't know how long it will take me, but I will make that towel mine. In the mean time, I will work with what I have around Kanto. Onsen heals my mind, body, and soul. Onsen makes my achy knees feel spry again and my acne go away. Onsen warms me from the heart, and this blog is dedicated to my hobby.

Some people collect stamps. Other people ski. I take baths.

Booyah.