Usually, Christmas for me means snow, family and a large amount of food (which you will eat for days afterwards standing in front of the fridge in the classiest manner possible). Not this year. My being on the other side of the globe made things difficult.
But this was the case for everyone in our little group, so we decided to nonetheless celebrate it. And we thought “What better way to celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ than to sit butt-naked in a large amount of steaming hot water?”. Naturally, we were right. There is no better way.
We therefor went to Hakone, about 2 hours away from Tokyo.
We stayed at a little guest house called the Fuji-Hakone guest house (very nice, by the way, if ever you’re looking for an address over there … it’s about 60 euros for one night). We chose this guest house for one main reason: we were absolutely skint and it was the cheapest it had an indoor and outdoor onsen (hot spring).
I don’t think I’ve ever, in my short life, taken so many baths and showers in two days. The hot spring water has sulphur in it, and it absolutely stinks your hair up, making the showers necessary. What’s amusing with the outdoor onsen is that it’s friggin’ cold. You get there, take your bathrobe off as quickly as possible, shower and then jiggle your way to the hot water. It goes fast enough, but you still have the time to freeze in the few minutes between shower and hot spring. And I shriek a lot.
I had huge problems with the bathrobe/yukata. For reasons above my understanding, I always ended up looking like some bizarrely formed human being, one arm bigger than the other, or one wonky boob (I know you’re all positively glad to know that detail). Amira helped me once or twice before giving up on me and calling me a hopeless case. I honestly don’t know why I was having such trouble. It still made me feel a bit more Japanese (if one forgets my very blond hair).
We bought a cake (or what the Japanese call a cake … also known as fifty tons of cream) and ate it, in between our numerous baths and watching “The Shining” (very Christmas-y, I know).
(by the way, people who have told me it was terrifying lied)
The day after, we walked about the lake Ashi, slowly turning into walking, talking snowwomen. It felt great to get away from the constant noise and city-ness of Tokyo. Main reason why people go there, actually… there were quite a few other Japanese tourists sharing the place with us.
We would have liked to stay there a bit longer. One gets used to the sulphur smell, after a while.
First, “The Shining” *is* terrifying. Second, the rusty swan gives me the blues: what is it supposed to be?
I spent most of the film gagging at the awful palette of orange colors (welcome 70s). And telling the woman to get the hell out. And eating cake. Maybe that is the recipe to be immune to it
?
? There was a bunch of these duck-pedalo boat thingemies, patiently waiting for summer. Thought it would make an interesting picture.
Isn’t that an awesome picture
Where is this Christmas tree with the strange dolly behind? Doesn’t look like the student tree in the dorm. And where did they grow the huge strawberries? And ‘The Shining’ is one film I don’t want to watch on my own. You must have had some SAKE before seeing it
It’s a small armor, not a doll xD it was in the guest house!
the strawberries aren’t huge. the cake is tiny. Perspectives.
And what’s the cotton wool doing on the tree?
fake snow!
Wooling of course…