Fushioukaku Onsen
Well this definitely was a bucket list item for me. I finally made it to an Onsen spa. An onsen is a Japanese bath and hot spring and this one is an onsen retreat and spa. So like there are one day ones or ones you can spend like $8 just to go to a bath for but this one you stay overnight and get breakfast and dinner provided and its very nice.
This was my first day when reception tied that cute bow for me. I never was able to make it so pretty again haha.
The dinners and breakfasts were really something else. First meal I had was dinner and I walked in and the first picture was sitting before me. By the end of the meal they just kept bringing plates and plates and plates and I just tried to eat as much as I could but there was SO much. I don't even think this is all of it I just gave up after that. The second dinner, the one I had tonight, was the same and by the end of it there were 12 food plates, 2 sauce plates, and my tea. It really was crazy and it's good food too, they don't skimp on you.
Breakfast is the same. Maybe you can tell by the tray, but this was another help yourself all you can eat deal. It was delicious. They had everything from American things like omg bread and butter to Japanese which generally aren't pictured here because I really miss American breakfast.
But you know what I miss more than anything? I mean I miss Chinese food, have managed to not have that the entire trip but Japanese and Thai are close enough that I'm like, eh good enough. I get my fill of Italian food because everyone seems to have Italian restaurants around, American food I actually do get just not a ton, especially burgers. Burgers are a lot of places. No what I miss more than anything at this point is Mexican food... I would do just about anything for a couple tacos, some ice cold pina colads (shoot me it's not strictly Mexican), and some really fresh salsa... I really want to go to Mexico right now, but I think southern California will have to do.
Anyway the Japanese have higher standard qualities than we do in the States in just about every way that I've noticed so far and bathing is no exception. The bath area was exquisite with many pools of different depths and temperatures, some indoor and some outdoor, and just really beautiful. They also had a sauna which was nice.
Me before heading to the bath and after because my hair looked fabulous.
The entire set up is really gorgeous and the indoor ones look out to the outdoor ones and a beautiful Japanese garden. The only downside that I didn't really realize or think ahead of is that they totally dehydrate you so I didn't drink enough water after the first night and was totally dehydrated in the morning. It was a lot like that day in Thailand I got super dehydrated except not nearly as bad. It was just hard to stand for a while and I made sure to absolutely stuff myself at breakfast and had to lay down and intermittently drink water all morning. Nothing too bad though.
Really a great experience all around though and I'm glad I made it here. I knew that I was looking for a pretty much all inclusive experience where I could just relax and this was perfect.
Tomorrow I will have breakfast here and then leave on the 9am bus to the station. I'm going to try to leave my bag at the hostel I booked for tomorrow and then get over to Universal Studios as fast as I can! I am literally SO excited. This has been a big part of this trip that I've been looking forward to for a while. I have never been closer to a Harry Potter World in my life and I can not wait. I'm not sparing any expense tomorrow. If there's one place I might be willing to buy souvenirs this will be it.
So if you don't hear from me in a few days that is definitely the reason why. So the 10 and 11 I'll be at Universal Studios and then the 11th I take another night bus to Tokyo and on the 12th at 4pm I'm going to The Studio Ghibli Museum! This is another big thing for me, if you've ever seen Spirited Away or any other Miyazaki movie you'll know what this museum is all about. I'm actually going back to Tokyo earlier than I had wanted just to make it to this museum as you have to book and reserve tickets in advance and this was literally the only day available during my trip that I could book.
One last thing to note I really am 17 hours ahead of Portland (14 ahead of the east coast) so it's almost always a full day ahead for me. I find it really interesting. So when I come home I'll leave Japan at 5pm January 15 which is midnight between the 14th and 15th in Portland. The flight is 9 hours and I'll arrive in Portland at 9am January 15 (I travel back in time) and around 2am in Japan time. So my hope is that I can sleep on the entire flight (definitely using dramamine to help that one along) and wake up at 9am Portland time, stay awake the entire day, and hopefully get over my jetlag in one fell swoop. It's ambitious but I think it's possible. Additionally to help this plan along I won't sleep the night before because the Tsukiji fish market opens back up to tourists on the 15th so usually you need to get in line at 3am for that because they only let in 150 tourists a day but I'm just going to go at midnight when the trains end and deal with it and be up the entire day so hopefully all this combined means no jet lag. I don't remember 100% but I do think that's how I did things on the way back from Europe last year... Wish me luck!