Tour Report on 5 August 2017, Saturday

Many thanks for 35 guests who joined this tour from Canada, Bermuda, USA, Taiwan, Argentina, Netherland, Australia, Slovenia, Poland, Ukraina, Germany, Urguay, France, Nepal, Austria, Mexico, Belgium, and so on. We divided into 4 groups.

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The weather was partly cloudy but very hot. On such a weather, bringing water and a hand-blowing fan is highly recommended. Otherwise, you might get sick.

For Japanese, it may be best season to bathe in hot spring. Hot spring bath in hot climate might sound strange but it is customery in Japan because Japan’s hot summer comes with high humidity. So people get so much sweat that they want to wipe out sweat and feel fresh by bathing. If bathed in naturally welled-up hot spring water, that is excellent.

Even within Tokyo city, there is a great natural hot spring public bath facility with recreation and entertainment. In Odaiba district by the Tokyo bay, the facility named Oedo Onsen Monogatari, there used natural hot spring dug and elevated from thousands meter deep underground.

Great feature of the place is that bathers change clothes to Yukata which they can rent from the facility and can enjoy eating meals, play games, view shows before bathing like fesitivity. After bathing in big and various indoor and outdoor hot bath tubs, they can have massage.

If one does not like full-body bathing, she or he can bathe only feet and even heal the body by having fish eat your rotten part of the skin. It looks like a Japanese Anime film “Sprited Away.”

But that might not be satifsfactory for guests who want to enjoy truly natural hot spring. If one can spare a day trip from Tokyo, there are many natural hot spring resorts around Tokyo. One of very unique places is Shiriyaki Onsen in Gunma Prefecture, which is in fact extraordinary natural. Because natural hot spring is in the river. The river itself is hot spring meaning hot spring water wells up from the bottom of the river. So one can not only bathe but swim in the natural hot spring water mixing with a mountain river current.

Why not enjoy Japan’s hot and humid summer by bathing in natural hot springs? That is the very natural way of enjoying Japan!