Ah, onsen. Several hours and nine dollars' worth of pure bliss. Soak your troubles away as you sit in a steaming pool of salty water, talking with your friends, listening to the waves crashing on the shore, knowing that a visit to the sea-salt-scrub room on your way out will complete the evening and leave your skin feeling baby soft for days.
We will miss this Japanese ritual. We will miss our local onsen. We will miss the freedom of walking around naked in front lots of old folks of the same gender (can't let that go unacknowledged) :) Nothing in America can replace that!
**For those of you who live in Mito and, more specifically, those who need directions to Nozomi Onsen in Ajigaura, here you go. We will be directing all inquiries to this site from now on. Yoroshiku;)
If you're out in our part of town, take Rt. 51 towards Oarai.
Turn left off of 51 onto the IC. Take a ticket and get on the IC going towards Hitachinaka (not Tokyo). When you come to the first tollbooth, don't exit to the left like you would if you were going to Joyful Honda or Kaihinkoen. Instead, go straight through, stopping to pay. Once you've paid, continue down the Interchange until you reach the next exit--exit left. Follow that road as it winds around, and you'll come to a "T" where you'll have to turn right or left. Turn right. Go straight down that road, through a light, and you'll come to another signal and a "T" (the ocean will be right in front of you--that's why you can't go straight). Turn right. Now you're running parallel to the coast. Follow that road until you see Nozomi on your right! Call us if you have any questions!
5 comments:
Oh, the onsen. Such great memories! We're going to miss going to the onsen with you guys. Emphasis on "going to"... since we seperate to our respective gender sides. (I guess I shouldn't let that go unacknowledged either)
Dao-tachi: thank you for the clarification. We never know who might read our blog and make horrible assumptions about what kind of people we are:)
I know of onsen culture and still make horrible assumptions about you guys. JK. Oh, how I miss Nozomi, sitting in a warm bucket o' water in the middle of a typhoon talking about life. Rub salt on your self while you can, the only salt around these parts seems to come in a shaker. Excited to see you guys in May!
I love the Onsen! Why don't we have those in the U.S.?
Well, never mind. Somehow I don't think an Onsen would be quite the same full of Americans as opposed to Japanese people.
link away my friends, link away.
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