Hot Springs Time!

October 3, 2012-

We are SOOOOO ready for a dip in the hot springs here in Shirakawa-go!!!  Are you ready to get into some steaming hot water???? 

Here are some of the views from our walk to the hot springs (they're across town ….so we've got about a twenty minute walk to get there):

Some of us might photograph lovely flowers.

Hey!  Do you want some hot coffee???  I LOVE the tea they serve here but I really could use some coffee.  I think we're in luck!  There's a vending machine over there that will spit us out a cup of instant coffee:

Ummmm….I don't see any English instructions! Oh no! Whew! Thank goodness there's a lady that came over to help us out. Thank you!!!!

Check out the sign posted on many of the buildings:

Here's a "duh" kind of sign…No smoking! Gee! I wonder why they don't want you to smoke around wooden buildings with thatched roofs!?!!!?

I know the photo doesn't show it but there was a portion of the river that looked TURQUOISE.

The hot springs is in a non-descript plain old building.  I think it's actually a hotel (?) but I'm not sure.  We brought with us our coupon that gives us a discount on bathing here.  

Want to know what's weird????  Guess how we bought our tickets AND rented our towels??? Using this vending machine: 

I didn't understand why we had to use the vending machine…it didn't save any time and somebody had to help us use it so it didn't save THEM any time either.  Do the Japanese really love vending machines or something???!?

Where to go next?? Oh!  I see.  Women's is on your right and men's is down the hall.  See you on the other side!

 Lucky for us nobody was bathing now.  We have the place all to ourselves!!!  The bath consists of a large indoor "pool", an outdoor tub (with a nice view of the river and…. a road that plunges into a dark tunnel) and a cold pool.

sorry about the blurry photo:

That tiny -but surprisingly deep- pool is ICE COLD. Oh boy! I jumped in and jumped right back out!!!!

Now, we paid a hefty price to bathe in the hot springs so let's stay in here as long as humanly possible.  We're jumping between the ice cold pool and the hot tub every few minutes to lengthen our stay.  PS. I hope you showered and shampooed before you got into the pool!!!!  DON'T shower afterwards as the minerals in the water are supposed to be good for your skin.  Or so I read somewhere.  ;-)

bathing etiquette:

Time to get out and get dressed!  Check out what's in the women's locker room:

A coin-operated massage chair (I don't have any coins….drat!) and a UV sterilizer?? For what???

Time to go get our shoes and go for a stroll!  (you did know that we didn't wear our shoes into this building, right?  Or did I fail to mention that??? Oops.  Yep.  There's a shoe locker box in the hotel lobby that stored all our shoes while we were bathing.)

Annika and Ava are grabbing their shoes. I think it's time we got ours too, don't you think?

You know…I think I could have stayed in here for HOURS.  It was so nice to have a forced time to relax and enjoy the hot water.  Just lovely!!!  I hope you enjoyed it too!  

I think we're going to slowly make our way over to the beautiful open air museum on the other side of the river.  Care to join us???