Monday, February 22, 2010

Feb. 21. Yunishikawa Hot Springs

Saturday morning we took a series of trains to a hot springs resort in the mountains west of Tokyo, guests of Toshio's parents, Junichiro and Kuniko along with his brother Eiichi, sister Reiko, and their families. We began with a series of local commuter trains that took us around Tokyo to the express train, where we met up with the rest of the family for a rolling picnic of Bento boxes. Lunch was wonderful, a collection of dishes from the local cuisine, virtually none of which I had ever seen before. It was all delicious, except for the pickled red radish, which is rather strong for my taste. We stayed at a famous resort hotel with at least six separate public baths plus a smaller private bath that could be reserved for family use. A picture of our host, Toshio's father Yunichiro, standing in front of the hotel entrance, is in the photo album, followed by pictures of the ice sculpture across the creek from the hotel lobby. When we got there, after settling into the room, we walked over to a nearby shrine, and a village dating back several hundred hears to the time when the remnants of the Heike clan, after losing a war, retreated there to hide out and avoid the fate of their relatives. A picture of the shrine is in the photo album.
Toshio and his brother supervised the children, who only wanted to play in the snow, while Anne and I toured the historical village. Then we walked back to the hotel for a soak in the mineral water. All the other men had already gone, so I went alone. I was shown how to dress in the kimono, then walked the entire length of the hotel to the entry to the outdoor bath. I had received some instructions, but I had to figure out the details of the procedures by watching the other men. We showered sitting down, squatting actually on short wood benches, using a hand held shower nozzle, large wash cloth, and a small wooden tub of water to soap and wash ourselves thoroughly. I first tried the bath right next to the shower room, but it was almost entirely closed in and filled with steam, so I walked down the stairs to the completely open bath beside the stream, across from the ice sculpture. The air was cold, probably about 30 F, and the stairs are open air, just screened by a wall, so you walk fast. I carried my towel down with me to dry off before coming back up the stairs, which probably violated some custom, since none of the other men did. They just carried the wet wash towel, which some used to cover their private parts while getting in and out of the bath, and many fold up and perch on top of their heads in the bath, to keep them out of the water. Soaking in the hot springs water is great, especially the outdoors bath. The cool air on head and shoulders makes it easier to stay in the bath for a nice long soak - then if you sit up out of the water for a few minutes to cool off, it feels good again. I enjoyed looking at the ice sculpture and listening to the water in the creek, and the occasional jumping fish.
After the soak, I toweled off, hustled up the stairs to the changing room, put on my kimono and walked back to the room (we were in a newer annex, so half the walkway is, again, outdoors, merely screened by a wall. Not a place to dawdle on a cold winter day.) We all met in the lobby, then walked across a rope suspension bridge to a restaurant, where we had the most amazing dinner, again all local cuisine using almost entirely locally-grown food. There were charcoal fires in a sand pit down the center, one for each group of 4-6 guests, with food (beef strips, fish, a paddle covered with rice balls, all on spits angled over the fire, and a mashed fish concoction on a wooden paddle. Next to us there were low tables with several other dishes, too many to remember. We turned the spits to cook the food, took them up whenever we thought they were done - I unfortunately left my fish paste a bit long, so it got dried out. It didn't scorch, and the crispy crust was great, but I could tell that 2 minutes less over the fire would have been better. The rice balls over the fire were really interesting - usually I find the rice paste ball pretty bland and uninteresting, but these had formed a semi-carmelized crust that was delicious. I couldn't help comparing them to roasted marshmallows, which is an insult to the rice balls but you get the idea.
After eating for a couple of hours, we realized the time and hurried back to the hotel to take a taxi up the street to an area with over 1000 little foot-high snowmen, each with a candle in a hollowed-out area in its belly. A couple of pictures (blurry, sorry!) are in the photo album. It was quite beautiful, the crowd was just the right size to add to the fun of it.
Next morning, as I usually do, I awoke early. After lying in bed for a half hour wide awake, I got up, took my laptop in to the lobby, hoping in vain for a cup of coffee, and did a little e-mail and organizing of some of my photos. Then I went back to the room, found everyone still asleep, so as quietly as I could changed into my kimono and went back to the outdoor bath. It was very lovely in the morning - air probably about 10 F, but a songbird still managed to twitter away across the creek. At that hour, there were only a couple of other old men inn the bath, but later a younger man came in. I soaked for about a half hour, got out and toweled off. I had left my wet wash towel on the rocks next to the bath - it was frozen solid. We had a buffet breakfast, also including many dishes I had never had before - I especially liked the brown rice with beans and black sesame seeds. We spent a little time packing up, met in the lobby, then Toshio, Anne, Alisa, and I walked over to a little ski / sledding slope where a nice man lent Alisa one of the plastic sleds he'd brought for his own kids and she got in a couple of very good runs. A picture of Alisa sliding is on the photo album. Then we walked back over to the festival area, where in addition to the little hollow snowmen there were also a collection of a sort of igloo, where we had a bbq picnic (photos in the album). I was a bit skeptical of picnicking in that small closed-in space but it was a lot of fun, and the food was, as usual, great. I enjoyed very much sharing it with Toshio, Anne, Toshio's sister Reiko and her husband, Hayato. Pictures are on the photo album.
Lunch finished, it was time to begin the journey back, beginning with a bus down the long, winding, narrow mountain road to the train station. It was very crowded, so Alisa sat on my lap, where she promptly fell asleep. At the train station we had a half hour wait, so we soaked our feet in an outdoor hotspring foot bath, a very civilized arrangement, I think! We got on the express, but Anne and I left the party a few stops down the line to journey to our next stop, so we said our goodbyes on the train and began the transition to the next adventure.

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