Kelly and Gizelle's Adventure Days - Ebina Onsen

Laura is gone (sadness) now, but adventure days must continue without her. Today Gizelle and I went to a local onsen. An onsen is a hot spring bath. Obviously, I took no pictures today. This particular location Gizelle had been to with her students which was great because there is a lot of etiquette that you should follow when at an onsen. A lot of naked etiquette. Pretty much just imagine that you are at a nice spa, but everyone is naked. Well, only naked ladies. The onsen is split in to two halves- one for the ladies, one for the gentlemen.

So we start off buying our entry tickets from a vending machine because that's how the Japanese do things. I have no idea what most of the buttons meant, we just picked the biggest one. So in we go. We head down the hall and go in to the red curtain. Good thing red/pink is for girls, blue is for boys is universal; otherwise, let's just say I'd be holding it a lot.

We go behind the curtains and through the door and are immediately confronted by a bunch of old naked ladies. We get stares cause we're white lady gaijin. It's like the Athletic Club locker room except for there being one weirdo that likes to walk around naked, everyone does. It's Japan though, that's how they do the onsen.

So we head out to indoor onsen first, we bath while sitting on these little buckets and clean up before we get in the public bath. First we hang out inside in the bubble tub. It actually is like a giant hot tub, jets and all. Awesome.

We hang out inside for awhile and then we head outside. First we go in to the salt sauna. You grab a handful of salt as you walk in and scrub your body down. It's a do-it-yourself kind of spa I suppose. We scrub. We rinse. Then we hit up the mini tubs. They resembled our onsen in Nikko.

Next, we do a little sunbathing while laying on these marble stones with hot water running across them and a stone headrest. Finally, we just sit and soak in the outdoor onsen, trying to keep our wrinkled fingers and toes out of the water so we could stay a little longer.

I always kinda thought that the Japanese going to onsens for vacation or for the day were kinda weird, but I get it now. It was so relaxing and nice to just chat and hang out (and try not to look at everyone's nakedness). It was such a fun and relaxing adventure day, but only recommended for close friends. :)