Relaxation
Aug. 1st, 2010 11:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
epik_noodlesThis morning, after my well deserved sleep, I woke up early and went to the open-air bath / hot spring. Hakone is loaded with tons of underwater hot springs and geysers. It's my first time going to a Japanese hot spring. It was so weird at first, "whoa there's A LOT of naked people!" The Japanese don't get fussy over nudity like most foreigners do. Before you enter the spring, after putting away your shoes and undressing, you have to rinse yourself with hot water. Then you can go into the hot spring pool. There's more things I want to say regarding the hot spring, but I shouldn't because it'll be very awkward.
Here's a cute illustration to show my trip to the hot spring.
Yes, that would be me clinging to the side of the spring. Miki and Arata were talking to each other a good distance from me. I moved away from them because the area I was sitting in was where the water was being heated. I was flailing around in the shallow water like a dying fish because the heating mechanism in the water was burning me and I really didn't know it was behind me, which is why I moved away from everyone else.
After a nice relaxing soak in the hot spring, we hit the road again. We drove up a mountain on the other side of Hakone to go see where the steam rises out of the rocks. In that tourist area, there were a lot of suspended cable cars that took you across the mountains. Hakone is also known for it's "black eggs." What makes these eggs special and black is only regional to Hakone. These black Hakone eggs were baked in an underwater hotspring at the base of the Mount Hakone Volcano. They've been baked until the egg shells turned black. According to Hakone folklore, If you eat one "kuro-tamago" (black egg), it'll extend your lifespan by 7 years.
I tried one... and you know... it tastes like a normal hard-boiled egg. I also tried egg ice cream and wasabi ice cream while I was there. Both ice creams were very interesting.
Our next stop was the premium outlets. When we got there, I wasn't all that impressed. It looked exactly like the outlet center that's nearby my restaurant back in Batavia. It had serval shops that were different, other than that it look like an American outlet center. The weirdest part is that the outlet is divided by a valley right in the middle. To get from one side of the outlet to the other, you need to cross a very big bridge.
None of us actually bought anything, so we got on the expressway again. We were on our way back to Saitama. Before returning, we stopped in Ikebukuro for dinner. According to Hiro, Ikebukuro has the best and most famous ramen. Hiro took us to a place where he's a regular at. We know this because we saw the amount of stamps on his stamp card when the waiter asked for it. I had one of those dipping ramens, ohhhhh the noodles were so delicious. We ate and chatted, it was fun. After the meal, we continued back to Arata's house. Now I've figured out the best signal spot for internet which is why this entry exists.
I might go ice skating tomorrow, yay!!!
I'll write again soon, time to go to sleep.
Here's a cute illustration to show my trip to the hot spring.
Yes, that would be me clinging to the side of the spring. Miki and Arata were talking to each other a good distance from me. I moved away from them because the area I was sitting in was where the water was being heated. I was flailing around in the shallow water like a dying fish because the heating mechanism in the water was burning me and I really didn't know it was behind me, which is why I moved away from everyone else.
After a nice relaxing soak in the hot spring, we hit the road again. We drove up a mountain on the other side of Hakone to go see where the steam rises out of the rocks. In that tourist area, there were a lot of suspended cable cars that took you across the mountains. Hakone is also known for it's "black eggs." What makes these eggs special and black is only regional to Hakone. These black Hakone eggs were baked in an underwater hotspring at the base of the Mount Hakone Volcano. They've been baked until the egg shells turned black. According to Hakone folklore, If you eat one "kuro-tamago" (black egg), it'll extend your lifespan by 7 years.
I tried one... and you know... it tastes like a normal hard-boiled egg. I also tried egg ice cream and wasabi ice cream while I was there. Both ice creams were very interesting.
Our next stop was the premium outlets. When we got there, I wasn't all that impressed. It looked exactly like the outlet center that's nearby my restaurant back in Batavia. It had serval shops that were different, other than that it look like an American outlet center. The weirdest part is that the outlet is divided by a valley right in the middle. To get from one side of the outlet to the other, you need to cross a very big bridge.
None of us actually bought anything, so we got on the expressway again. We were on our way back to Saitama. Before returning, we stopped in Ikebukuro for dinner. According to Hiro, Ikebukuro has the best and most famous ramen. Hiro took us to a place where he's a regular at. We know this because we saw the amount of stamps on his stamp card when the waiter asked for it. I had one of those dipping ramens, ohhhhh the noodles were so delicious. We ate and chatted, it was fun. After the meal, we continued back to Arata's house. Now I've figured out the best signal spot for internet which is why this entry exists.
I might go ice skating tomorrow, yay!!!
I'll write again soon, time to go to sleep.
