The fancy ryokan - part 2
Last night I slept heavily, and it was wise to skip the onsen. As much as I wanted to have that first try in the onsen, i was to tired and I simply couldn't imagine getting into a 42C onsen after a day in the blistering heat.
After a night of rest and cooling down I woke up with the sun and prepared for my first attempt at an onsen.
I won't lie, there was some nerves going on, as there is a lot of steps to doing the onsen properly. Thankfully I caught a break in from the morning bathers, and just as I arrived, they were all showering to leave. This helps take away any pressure and I slowly went through the new routine for the first time.
If you aren't familiar with Onsens, there are a lot of how-to videos on YouTube which will tell you all about this routine. And actually SHOW you an onsen. Given all the nudity involved, you will just have to use your imagination here.
The one somewhat unique hurdle I faced; my beard. You are never suppose to let long hair touch the onsen waters. Anyone with long hair would simply tie their hair up before entering. But beards, well they aren't so common in Japan.
I had planned to use my hiking buff as a short of makeshift beard net (and likely will in future) but a small hair clip was provided in my room that I was able to pin my beard up well enough with.
The hotel I am in has a number of different Onsens, and they rotate access based on gender from morning to evening.
The one I had access to this morning had both an indoor and an outdoor soaking pool. I started with the indoor one, simply based on proximity before eventually moving outdoors.
Being that this hotel is up on the side the mountain it is surrounded by the lush forests that blanket the mountains. The outdoor pool looked over Osaka, and was itself bathed in the noise of the forest. The hum of the insects and birds was ever present, but not intrusive.
After about 45 minutes I returned to the showers to rinse and cool down, then proceeded to breakfast.
As with dinner, I was greeted and shown to a table with my name on it. A small detail, bit it certainly made me feel special.
The breakfast was a Japanese buffet, and I eat heartily in anticipation of today being the first true hiking day (and conscious how daunting the mountain looked on my arrival yesterday. So steep and so dense with trees!)
Once I check out I will head back down to the train station and to the local market to stock up on food. I expect to need four meals before my next market access, so today will be the first time everything comes together; a full pack, steep terrain, GPS navigation, more bloody heat.
Its unclear if I will have cell access anywhere on the trail, so posts may be more sporadic.
Here we go!
After a night of rest and cooling down I woke up with the sun and prepared for my first attempt at an onsen.
I won't lie, there was some nerves going on, as there is a lot of steps to doing the onsen properly. Thankfully I caught a break in from the morning bathers, and just as I arrived, they were all showering to leave. This helps take away any pressure and I slowly went through the new routine for the first time.
If you aren't familiar with Onsens, there are a lot of how-to videos on YouTube which will tell you all about this routine. And actually SHOW you an onsen. Given all the nudity involved, you will just have to use your imagination here.
The one somewhat unique hurdle I faced; my beard. You are never suppose to let long hair touch the onsen waters. Anyone with long hair would simply tie their hair up before entering. But beards, well they aren't so common in Japan.
I had planned to use my hiking buff as a short of makeshift beard net (and likely will in future) but a small hair clip was provided in my room that I was able to pin my beard up well enough with.
The hotel I am in has a number of different Onsens, and they rotate access based on gender from morning to evening.
The one I had access to this morning had both an indoor and an outdoor soaking pool. I started with the indoor one, simply based on proximity before eventually moving outdoors.
Being that this hotel is up on the side the mountain it is surrounded by the lush forests that blanket the mountains. The outdoor pool looked over Osaka, and was itself bathed in the noise of the forest. The hum of the insects and birds was ever present, but not intrusive.
After about 45 minutes I returned to the showers to rinse and cool down, then proceeded to breakfast.
As with dinner, I was greeted and shown to a table with my name on it. A small detail, bit it certainly made me feel special.
The breakfast was a Japanese buffet, and I eat heartily in anticipation of today being the first true hiking day (and conscious how daunting the mountain looked on my arrival yesterday. So steep and so dense with trees!)
Once I check out I will head back down to the train station and to the local market to stock up on food. I expect to need four meals before my next market access, so today will be the first time everything comes together; a full pack, steep terrain, GPS navigation, more bloody heat.
Its unclear if I will have cell access anywhere on the trail, so posts may be more sporadic.
Here we go!
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