Travel Journal – Monday 14/4 – 08
Okay, today nothing much happened at all. Well, that’s not entirely true, some things did happen, like we went to an Onsen and such so well…
Today will be a short post, the reason for this is basically that I’ve had so much to do that I’ve fallen behind my blogging so I need to sum it up before the details leave my head. If you want to ask anything just send me a comment or something. I’m actually online at one of my two MSN accounts at least once a day.
So today we went up early, which was no change for me actually when I’ve been going up at this time every day during my trip to Björkliden. We got up around 0700 and because of the fact that none in this apartment got breakfast and that I hadn’t bought any for myself Lucien and I just went to find our way to the Onsen as soon as he was finished with his stuff.
So we got to the trains… and well… I think you’ve all seen or heard about how it’s so crowded in the trains in Japan that they really need people to squeeze people in. It’s not true, people squeeze themselves into the train. And I don’t exaggerate when I say that one cart had about a hundred people in it, squeezed in so they really pushed at you from all sides, which isn’t that pleasant. And if you want to go of at a station, you needed to push yourself out of the crowd. Well, except for the crowd in the train the problem was also the air. You see, when that much people is standing (or rather leaning) on each other they tend to breath. Yeah, I know, humans generally tend to breath, which unfortunately leads to the air getting thin and it gets very warm, except for the five to six bodies that are pressing up against you. So it was really kind of a pain to go by train that early in the morning, I won’t do it again.
Well, we managed to survive that and get to some place. I don’t remember the districts name, Lucien was leading me all the way, so I was alright. One thing that was really good and that saved me a lot of money was that I and Lucien cheated the system. Okey, I know some of you that read this probably don’t like that kind of stuff but I don’t really care, you can stop reading if you don’t want to know about my trip. Well the cheating actually wasn’t cheating for Lucien, it was more that he did a thing that he wasn’t supposed to do. He had bought a travel pass that gave him free train transportation. It costs about 3200 SEK and needs to be bought before coming into the country, it’s guilty for 21 days and it saves you a lot of money if you are going to go by train or Shinkansen in Japan because you can get almost anywhere in Japan for free for that sum. So next time I’ll go here, which I most certainly will do, I’m going to buy one of those too.
However, we cheated like this;
Lucien would go first with his pass1, and go through the special gate for those with problems. Show his pass and then take a turn, put the pass into a folder with much papers and directions and hand it over the bars to me and I took out the card and did the same thing. We did like this the whole day and every time we needed to change trains, which actually saved me about a 1000 yen2. I’m very greateful for that he wanted to do this, thou it was his own idea.
Well, after some time, we finally managed to find the charter bus that should take us to the Onsen. This bus looked like an old fashioned black train and was free! So we jumped on it and it took us to the Aqua Spa. When we arrived there we paid 1700 yen, for the whole day3 so it was only ca 112 SEK to stay at this high class bath for as long as we wanted. Lucien complained about how expensive it was… I myself thought that it was pretty cheap. I mean, this isn’t just a bathhouse like back home. And even thou it’s not Piteå Havsbad or Nordpolen, it’s still cheaper. In this price, it includes a locker with a key, a locker for your shoes, a bathrobe (for strolling around the premises), a bathing suit, a towel, and a small towel. Other than the stuff you got to borrow you could chose to bathe in eight different hot spring pools, each one of them with a different salt, go to the sauna, shower in the shower room4 or sun bathe at the veranda, which also had a hot spring tub. And that was just little of the things you got for this price.
The bathing area was huge. With many different pools with different kinds of natural salts and with this natural warm water, even the showers water is natural, no heated water. They only pumped it up from 15 km below the ground. There was three indoor pools. One that was shaped like four beds, so only four could be in it, one shaped as a yak Uzi5 and one just like a square. I also must mention that these pools were only for men, so I assume that the women on the other side of the Onsen had the about the same style and amount of indoor pools. There was also one outdoor pools for men only, and I know the women had one too, cause the only thing that blocked that area from the public bathing area was trees, tropical Asian trees, and big stones. The whole outdoor area was made like it was in a jungle and looked al natural, with an exception for the veranda, that looked like a veranda in a palace or something. It’s a shame that I couldn’t take any pictures, but it was very beautiful. Yeah, there was free water too! You need to drink much water if you are supposed to bathe in water that is about 40 degrees Celsius. Which is very, very varm I to bathe in I must say.
They had a resting area too, cause the whole general idea of an Onsen like this is that you shall relax. Take a dip, then go up for about ten minutes, then another one and continue like that for a while and make sure you drink something. Then they had a lunch and relaxing area. This was kind of impressive. They had one whole floor with beds, lunch tables6, massage room7, and a traditional game room with Go, Shogi and Othello. At the lunch tables they also had television and stuff. Other than this they also had an restaurant, but Lucien and I had bought our own lunch at a Super Market before going here so we ate in the lunch room instead. Then we got back in the bath for about two hours before we went home.
In the changing room they had more than just lockers. They had a room where you could weigh yourself, and dry your towel and bathing suit. And an massage table if you wanted to rest or have someone massage you. They also had a room where you could brush your hair and dry it with a hair dryer and things like that. Of course they offered brushes to borrow and soap, and different kind of things for your hair and stuff… And all this for under the price of 120 SEK and we stayed here from 11:00 to 17:00, if anyone thinks that’s expensive they are seriously nuts. Even I think that it’s definitely worth it.
After this we went past Shinjuku where we just hanged around and got something to eat at pictured a lot of stuff before we got home. We visited the worlds busiest crossing. It’s a giant crossing in Japan where there are about twelve roads than intersect and when the lights turn green for the walkers, they walk over this crossing. And believe me it looks like ants trying to find their way trough thousand of other ants. It’s really much people going back and forth during the four minutes it’s green for them. In Japan they have different kinds of crossings than in Sweden. They have a X-type crossing. You are not only walking from one side to another you are also walking to the opposite street. So you have like three ways to choose to go to from each stop, this is due to the fact that all walkers on every side walks on the same time at these kinds of crossings. They have regular crossings to but on major streets and bigger streets they have this kinds of crossings.
Well, other than this Lucien is going home tomorrow. We had a great time together even thou he’s a little bit cranky or stingy. I don’t really know how to explain it but he’s Brittish, if that tells anyone anything. Haha, maybe I tell you a little bit more about him if you ask or when I’m coming home… if I’m coming home, hahaha. I like this place and have already started to talk to some people of the possibility of working here as a teacher, hehe.
Best regards,
Herid Fel
Which was a card made of paper, not that high-tech ↩
67 SEK ↩
We arrived at 11:00 ↩
Which was a must if you wanted to go to the hot springs at all ↩
Which is a bubble bath, for those who don’t know ↩
Japanese style, that will say low tables that you sit on the floor ↩
Which it was required an reservation and an additional fee ↩
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