Hyogo Nishinomiya Yamato No Yu Onsen, Fall 2011

After graduating from university, I was in a sort of purgatory waiting for my future employer to tell me where I was to be assigned. The company had branches all over the country, and I, being on the heels of a messy breakup, was willing to go to any of them. The call came on a Friday. I was to be in Osaka by Monday. With only two days notice, I packed what I could and abandoned the rest of the stuff with my roommate. (Sorry, buddy!)

Osaka lies in the middle of the Japanese archipelago in a region called Kansai. The name is synonymous with loud people and good interesting food. It is dirty by Japanese standards, but it is a truly fun and lively place. People are laid back and very friendly, and the city just feels warmer than Tokyo could ever be. It is a truly fascinating place which I would love to visit, though I don't think I would ever want to live there again.

I found Yamato No Yu thanks to a friend's mother who lived in the area. After hearing about my little obsession, she brought me to a neighborhood onsen in Nishinomiya City, Hyogo prefecture. Yamato No Yu is a chain brand of onsen that has branches throughout Kansai and a few in Kanto. It is a big, fancy, family onsen which can get extremely crowded on weekends. It was my first glimpse at what onsen were like outside of the Beppu bubble, and it was a little overwhelming at first. This Super Walmart of an onsen boasts 14 different types of baths, a massage salon, a barber shop, and a cafeteria among many other amenities. You don't go here just to take a bath, you go for a mini-vacation. It was not the little mom n pop onsen I was used to. In all fairness, this was a very good onsen that did not disappoint. The temperature was a bit on the cool side, so you could soak for a long time without overheating. My favorite were these cute little one person tubs which were shaped like planters for saplings.

They were deep enough to cover your shoulders and wide enough to prop your feet up on the side and recline. At night, you could gaze up at the stars while elevator music played softly from behind a bush. The garden was perfectly manicured and the baths were immaculately clean. Though the 800 yen price tag felt outrageous at first, I understood what I was paying for.

Honestly, life in Kansai isn't for everyone, myself included. I had problems with the food and never could understand what the heck people were saying in their heavy dialect. It never really felt like home in the way Beppu or Tokyo did, but it was a great transition city just as Yamato No Yu was a great transition onsen. I don't miss my life there, but when I recall the memories from that time, I feel glad that I experienced it.

If you happend to be in Nishinomiya, please make it a point to visit this onsen. Should my travels lead me back there, I will definitely be taking a dip :)

A Note

Okay, let's face it. I have not been able to visit as many onsen as I'd like to recently. Because of this, I thought it might be good for me to reflect upon my past onsen experiences in other regions of Japan as well as on other interesting places I have visited. By doing this, I hope to create a blog which I can update on a regular basis rather than once a month. I hope that, in addition to sharing my onsen experience, I can also share more about the places I love to go. Perhaps others will find it interesting and go there, too. I don't really know how much longer I will be in Japan, but I want to share with others the treasures which I have discovered in my six years here so far. If nothing else, I will have my Japan preserved for me as I see it now, on Google blogs, for all eternity!

これからもよろしくおねがいします :)

Saitama Hyakkannon Onsen July 2nd, 2013

As circumstances would have it, I have found myself with an abundance of time on my hands. After quitting my job nearly two months ago and without a prospect in sight, my darling boyfriend invited me to tag along on one of his business trips to Saitama prefecture, the largely residential prefecture to Tokyo's north. Saitama gets a bad rap because...well...it isn't the most exciting place to be. I,too, am guilty of making cracks on this poor prefecture, or as I like to call it, The Iowa of Japan. Never in a million years did I expect to discover such an earth-shatteringly awesome onsen there.

Hyakkannon Onsen is located in　Kuki City, a three minute walk from Higashi Washinomiya Station on the JR Utsunomiya line. This onsen seems to be the pride and joy of the city. Garish, yellow, SEE ROCK CITY-esque signs line the roads leading up to it, and it is pretty hard to miss. With a large (free) parking lot and just an hour's worth of driving time between Tokyo and Kuki, I recommend going by car if possible.

First thing you need to know about this place...you'll need at least three 100 yen coins to close your lockers, so make sure you have some with you. After storing your shoes, you exchange your shoe locker key for another key in the changing room. The fee for bathing is 700 yen for three hours and of course there are all the optional Korean beauty treatment packs at various prices. They also have private baths available for 3,150 yen. From what I can tell, in addition to a private bath you also get a 'chill out room' with a TV and green tea. Anyway, we chose to do the regular one for obvious economic reasons. The locker room was spacious and bright. There were plenty of good quality blow dryers in the vanity space as well as nice shampoo, soap, and conditioner available to everyone. There were jet baths, hot baths, cold baths, reclining baths, and outdoor baths surrounded by a beautiful tropical garden. Gardenias perfumed the air and Antique Roadshow violin music played softly. Talk about YOWZA for your yen! The best part? It was nearly empty. We arrived a little before 10 AM and were the only people under 40. The ladies in my bath were polite and friendly. They were also quiet, something I really look for in a good onsen.

This onsen has an unusually high level of minerals diffused in the water. For every 1kg of water, there are 18.3 grams of mineral content. To put that into perspective, most onsen in the Kanto region have 0.5 grams. 18.3 compared with 0.5?!? Amazing. You can taste it in the air and of course in the water. Salt. Pure, natural sodium chloride. You don't just take a bath, you get coated in nature's seasoning. Because of its saltiness, the skin on my face stung a little when I touched it with the water, so be sure to keep your face dry if you have sensitive skin. Other than that, be prepared for relaxation to the max.

I can confidently say that this onsen is the BEST Kanto onsen I have visited. Its serene beauty as well as the genuine kindness of the people there make for an unforgettable experience. It is going to be awhile before I can say that Saitama isn't lame...but this experience opened my eyes and taught me that you really can't say you know a place until you have taken the time to see what's there. This onsen is spectacular in every way, and I very much want to visit again someday.

TIP Be sure to try their dango desserts from the little hut outside. A perfect post-onsen snack!