Adventure 25/50 : Visiting a Japanese onsen -- sorta

One of the highlights of any trip to Japan is a visit to a traditional onsen, or hot spring. But that's hard for us to do as a couple, because so many are single-sex... because so many are clothing-free. Also, many of them ban people with tattoos -- or ask that they be covered. As such, we needed to find a "family" onsen, where swimsuits were required. And then I saw this:

It's a bath full of red wine, at a "spa theme park" called Yunessun, in an area called Hakone, near Mount Fuji. And the red wine bath is only one of the "unique" experiences in the park!

It seemed like the perfect place to go after our Mount Fuji climb, so we booked a hotel near Yunessun and headed there after we came down the mountain.

We didn't really know what to expect, but we took a train and a bus to the hotel, dropped off our things and picked up our spa passes, and walked over to Yunessun.

Billed as a "Hot Springs Theme Park", Yunessun is a massive complex of indoor and outdoor hotspring pools. When you arrive, you take escalators up past event spaces to a floor dedicated to restaurants and shops. One more flight up and you arrive at the front desk, where we held out the little tickets we'd been given and smiled winningly. The staff gave us wristbands that we could use to make purchases inside (no need to carry money!) and had our locker numbers and keys built in. They then sent us over to the rentals area to pick up our rental towels (included in our tickets, somehow).

Then we headed into the massive locker rooms. Apparently there's another set of them upstairs – I think I worked out that up to 5000 people (3000 women, 2000 men) could all have their own locker between the two floors. Wil and I agreed to get changed into our swimsuits and then meet in the hallway. The place felt busy but not crowded, and we soon made our way toward the "swimsuit area".

En route we walked through a "foot bath", and were stopped for a cheesy photo. Irresistible.

The main space is huge, with high ceilings. It's dominated by a massive pool called the "Aegean Sea" – 3 or 4 feet deep and full of various water massage jets. We moved around it for a while to get our bearings.

Yunessun is most famous, of course, for their crazy theme tubs. We didn't spend a lot of time in the tiny "green tea" bath:

"The vivid green hot spring water with soothing tea fragrance beautifies skin and improves blood circulation. No drinking, please."

Or the larger but oddly crowded "sake" bath:

"Genuine sake drips down from a big barrel, but it's not for drinking! It fills the air with a comforting aroma and enters the hot spring to warm you deep inside."

But we did visit the "coffee" bath as they were preparing for the "coffee pouring" – when an employee comes around, talks about coffee, pours it into peoples hands for tasting, and then pours it over the people in the bath. It's actually funnier than that sounds, honest.

First there's the talking…

Then there's the tasting...

Then there's the pouring… (I should be clear that this isn't scalding hot coffee!)

And then there's the throwing buckets over the crowd…

The bathers shriek and laugh, and a good time is had by all.

Because that was fun, we went to the "red wine" bath for the "wine pouring". We had been to the red wine bath earlier in the day, and the smell was almost overpowering. When we went later, about 10 minutes before the "pouring", we noticed the bath was way less red, and not as heavily scented. As we sat there waiting with a few other expectant bathers, an employee came in and sprinkled a bucket of what I could only describe as "wine powder" into the bath. As it dispersed, the bath turned wine dark (ha!) and the scent returned.

Then the "sommelier" came in with several bottles of wine. He talked about it for a bit, probably reminding people NOT TO DRINK THE BATHWATER, and then people moved forward to get some wine poured into their hands.

Then he pulled up couples to have it poured over them. As the wine was cold and the pool was hot, everyone shrieked as it hit them.

We loved this guy (wonder where he's from?) who went up on his own for the wine shower:

After everyone had been baptized, the "throwing wine over the bathers" frenzy started.

I managed to get a hit right in the face at some point, which was pretty funny.

Crazy theme tubs – oh, and Doctor Fish, of course! – aside, there were other delights on offer.

Outside there is a huge kids' play area – you know the kind with the giant filling/dumping bucket? There are also three waterslides with have hot water running on them, so they're open year round, which is pretty fun to think about watersliding in the snow…

There's also a funny set of shallow "cave pools" with lights and aquariums set in the walls.

Oh, and then there's the hot waterfall, which again must be really amazing in the winter!

But my favorite spot in the park is the massive, three-tier hot tub arranged with views of the nearby hills -- I mean "Open-air hot spring with fine view". During our visit it was a bit cloudy so we didn't have much of a view, but it was still amazing to sit outside in these tubs and chat quietly.

I should note that there is a very traditional, sex-segregated onsen area in Yunessun, but we couldn't visit because we each have a couple of small tattoos. The photos on the Yunessun site make it look extra lovely, though!

We visited Yunessun during our trip to Hakone. Our hotel booking included guest passes for "the entire time of our stay" (1 nights = 2 days of passes), but we were pretty happy with just the one day. Maybe if the weather hadn't been great the second day we would have gone back? We did really have fun there, and while we didn't a "traditional" onsen experience, we were still really happy to have visited.

Adventure 24/50 : DOCTOR FISH!

It may be unethical. I am still thinking it over. But damn, we loved our session with the DOCTOR FISH.

"Doctor Fish" are minnow-sized fish called Garra rufa, relatives of the carp family. The practice of using them for "pedicures" comes from hot springs resorts in Turkey, apparently. They don't have teeth, but they use their lips to "nibble" at dead skin, leaving your feet nice and smooth.

I don't even know when I first heard of them, but when we were in China last year I started thinking about it, and decided I would try to experience them this year. So when we saw that Yunessen offered them, we were in!

At Yunessen -- the hot spring theme park in Hakone -- the service is offered in 2-hour stints with a break in the middle, apparently so the fish get a little hungry. When it opened, we got in the short line, had our wristbands scanned, and waited until we were "on deck".

First we went to social baths of fresh water and washed our feed and lower legs. Then we moved forward to a larger pool -- maybe 15 feet across -- and after the previous group left, we moved in and sat down.

Within seconds, the fish got curious. Our group of about 18 people included a group of teenage guys, one of whom yelled and kicked and splashed whenever he was touched by a fish. This may have been why the fish clustered on us, and especially Wil, like piranha on a carcass. Or something.

Nibble nibble -- more ticklish than painful. And it was giggly and silly and we smiled and laughed with a bunch of strangers. We had our feet in the fish pool for about 5 minutes, and then left, and washed our feet again at the end. A full treatment apparently would last 25 minutes or so.

Here in Washington state -- and in at least 13 other states and a few Canadian provinces -- Doctor Fish are illegal. What's interesting is that the reasons for the bans vary. In some, the ban is because they are unhygienic. In a spa, products need to be discarded or disinfected between clients -- but obviously you can't discard or disinfect a fish. In other places the ban is because it is potentially cruel to the fish -- they are often starved between treatments to make sure they nibble at the clients.

I'm more concerned about the cruelty factor than the hygiene factor, but we did see that the fish were fed between the two two-hour windows they are "open for business". So here's hoping they're happy nibbling away.

Adventure 23/50 : Tokyo Disneyland

After a good night's sleep at the Nice Inn Mahaima Tokyo Bay, we hopped their shuttle and were dropped off at the gates. We put our stuff in a locker and quickly joined the queue. It was fun to compare the queuing behavior in Tokyo vs. Anaheim and Orlando... But the lines moved pretty quickly despite the crowds, and soon we were in.

I always love how each park has learned from its predecessors and adapted to its climate. Paris has the "quick exits" down the sides along "Main Street", and Tokyo has a big glass roof... perfect for those rainy days.

We didn't linger in the "World Bazaar" -- shopping could wait -- but moved toward the castle for the essential pic:

Then, of course, we made a beeline for one of the two most important rides of the day ... even if we would have preferred it in its natural state!

I was wearing my Haunted Mansion wallpaper tank, which the cute "servants" at the house recognized immediately and fussed over me. Bless. They also liked our classic wool ears, and pretended to ask if we would swap our clothes and ears for their cast member gear.

There was only the briefest wait and we were ushered into the entry. Sadly, we're not as familiar with the Haunted Mansion Holiday script to "follow along"... but once in the stretching room (oh, I wish we could have seen the standard version!!!) it was easy enough. Still, funny to hear Jack speak Japanese!

Portraits in the hallway...

Loading the doom buggies -- not as fancy here as in Anaheim:

Zero trimming the tree in the library:

Jack at the entrance to the graveyard, chatting up a storm:

The beautiful curling hill -- the best part of Haunted Mansion Holiday:

And some denizens of the graveyard, singing the holidazzled "Grim Grinning Ghosts" song:

We enjoyed it so much we went right around and rode it again, much to the delight of the cast members. 

We went from there deeper into Fantasyland to pick up fastpasses for Pooh's Hunny Hunt. We had been told that PHH is an "essential" ride at Tokyo Disneyland, so were curious about it. And then it was time to head to our other favorite ride:

The ride was pretty similar to Disneyland, even passing the Blue Bayou restaurant in the swamp ... though the banjo songs were different, the talking skull spoke Japanese, it lacked the creepy mermaid skeleton on the beach, and still had the women being auctioned off. Plenty of Jack Sparrow, though.

In all honesty, I'm not sure Jack was speaking English... though I think he was?

Key tasks fulfilled, we relaxed and wandered the park. What was funny was that it's very very similar to Disneyland ... but things are slightly in the "wrong: place, and distances are "wrong".

It's a Small World was very similar, but had a larger "Asia" section:

We went on a funny Jungle Cruise where -- even though we don't speak Japanese, we *still* got the jokes.

Don't forget Star Tours, all in Japanese, except in the intro video the droid switched to English and back again!

And then there was this... the Stitchified Enchanted Tiki Room...

The birds sang words and the flowers crooned... and Stitch played Elvis songs on his guitar... #notmytikiroom

But we loved how they had added little Halloween touches in the park: Pennants and elephant pumpkins at Dumbo:

The "Fab 5" in their costumes at the hub:

BTW, Daisy has NEVER looked so glam!

Adorable spiderwebbed Mickey balloons. I always kinda want one of these balloons, but I REALLY wanted one of these:

Again, there were lots of people in coordinated outfits:

and full-blown princess costumes:

Finally it was time for our fastpasses on Pooh's Hunny Hunt. It was a more secure version of fastpasses than in Anaheim -- you had to show the "reminder" ticket, which wasn't actually a fastpass, to go in the special entrance. And then you had to scan your park pass, which actually contained the "fastpass". That meant you couldn't get fastpasses and give them to someone else, which we often have done in the past when we were going to leave the park before the time came up.

Anyway, the queue area for PHH was cute, but we moved through it quite quickly. The ride cars were little hunny pots connected in sets of three; each one able to hold up to 6 people in 2 rows. The ride itself wasn't all *that* different -- the same stories, obviously -- but the behavior of the vehicles did. As we approached each scene, the little "trains" split into the three parts so everyone had a face-on view of the scene and could watch it unfold, and then the trains rejoined. At one scene the hunnypots and the background all "bounced" (no points for guessing who the scene portrayed!); in the "heffalumps and woozles" area all the pots swirled around separately, intermingling with other trains. Pretty great stuff.

Oh, and the gift shop... we did a lot of shopping... but I'm most in love with this Winnie rice spoon...

The day was really hot -- over 100 degrees F and very humid. And yet this was happening all day:

See all those people sitting around the edge of the hub? They're waiting for the parade. That won't start for over 2 hours. The worst part is that 15 minutes before the morning parade, an announcement said that the parade was cancelled "due to high temperatures". I'm guessing there was simply no way to keep the characters cool in their costumes...

By the mid afternoon we had ridden all the rides we wanted to ride, done quite a bit of shopping, and loads of people watching. So we decided to head home. It was a weird decision for us -- we tend to stay as late as we can -- but it was hot, we were tired, and we had squeezed in a lot of fun in 6 hours.