Yet another three-day weekend rolled around, and Meredith and Deborah decided they wanted to go down to Beppu and visit an Onsen. Unfortunately, Beppu is in Kyushu (read: VERY FAR AWAY) and also very very expensive. So they found an onsen catalogue, essentially, and found one in Hyougo prefecture, still not very close, but at least on the same island. We all decided to make a weekend of it, and stay at the Ryokan that housed it (see next entry), we being: Lauren, Alison, Dominique, Ursula, Myself, Byron, Leo, Meredith and Deborah. Quite a group. Sooooo off we went, completely unprepared for a five hour trip, and several train switches, one of which had to occur in a station we'd never been in, and we had three minutes to get off our train, find the appropriate train, buy tickets, and get on before it left. Unbelievably, we did so. It would have been another hour before another train would have left for the same destination, and the ryokan ppl were picking us up at a certain time in a bus, so we had to be on time.

We finally arrived, after a bus ride reminiscent of the windy car trips through the Tehachipi Mountains (remember those Mom and Dad?) or up to Calm (California Animal Living Museum). But it was in a bus, and after four hours of train rides, and I was getting a little motion sick, so I was glad to see the ryokan. We were shown to our shoe lockers, given slippers (which as always were too small ^.^), and shown to our rooms. We were also told to be downstairs for dinner at six o'clock sharp!! ^.^ Later, I would understand why, but that'll come in the discussion of the Ryokan. We found our Yukata (robes tied around the middle with Jackets over them, people lounge about in these) and made our way down to the onsen. Thank god it was not co-ed, that had been our primary criterion. I had my swimsuit on when I went down there, but unfortunately, it was not a bathsuit onsen, it was a naked onsen. So we shed our yukata and belongings in the changing room, passed through the door into the large pre-onsen room. There we had to sit on buckets and scrub down (they provided soap, shampoo, and a squirty hose), since it is very bad form to enter a hot spring dirty, especially since everyone's naked. It was really hard to get over that, especially since everyone was staring at us (not too many gaijin passed through this particular ryokan and onsen), and all we had were modesty towels the size of a flea. Plus, the water was absolutely clear, which apparently isn't terribly common. The water was lovely, and they were smooth rock pools, and when you got sick of being in the really hot water, you sunned yourself on the surrounding rocks like a lizard. Very interesting experience. I'd encourage everyone to do it at least once. There were several children there, as well as a few very old ladies who had to be helped into the water by their daughters. On our second trip to the onsen, that evening, we discussed the medicinal qualities of the hot springs with a few Japanese ladies who were very interested in our experiences in Japan.

We were back from the onsen and ready for dinner at six o'clock sharp, just as we were told. We were ushered into a lovely traditional Japanese dining room, with a very long low table. You are expected to sit with your legs folded underneath you in the traditional way, since it is fairly rude to sit indian-style if you are a woman. However, it takes superhuman circulation to do so if you aren't used to it, so we all gave up about halfway through and sat however we were most comfortable. When we arrived, there was quite a feast in front of us, with eight dishes of various food in front of each of us. It was quite beautiful. There was a lot of very expensive sushi, and just a ton of food that I still have no idea as to it's composition. Every fifteen minutes or so, they would come in and serve us one or two more dishes of new things, as they made them. It was an interesting meal, and as I said, beautifully laid out, but I couldn't bring myself to eat much. I tried quite a bit of it, and took a bite out of most of it, but I have decided that fish oil and I don't get along much, so there wasn't much to my liking. I'm sure Deborah took a picture of the food, so I'll see if I can get a copy from her to post on the site.

Breakfast the next day was a buffet style affair. A traditional Japanese breakfast (which this was) consists of fish (they had grilled whole fish), boiled fish paste, soft boiled eggs, nori (seaweed), rice, they provided some salad and cold cuts, I'm sure, for us, and various pickled vegetables. I don't think there's much reason to fear that I will be converting to the Japanese diet anytime soon.