.027 - yudanaka onsen hopping

After a day of partying and scouring the streets of the bustling Tokyo, our group decided it would be good to escape it all and bathe with the monkeys. Fortunately, the monkey part never happened, but we did go up to a small town named Yudanaka, home to many onsens (Japanese natural hot tubs).

Personally, I thought the two days we were to spend in Yudanaka would be the most boring of the entire trip, but sometimes a little rest and an elimination of all city noise is just what you need to get rejuvenated. Not to mention laying back in extremely relaxing onsens.

Yesterday, we decided to get dressed in our Yukas(light kimonos) and go onsen hopping. Here we were a group of foreigners dressed in Yukas that probably weren’t meant for use on the streets. But who cares. We had fun and looked pretty fly walking along the surreal Japanese countryside. And like Nick stated, “when else would we have a chance to do this again”.

The onsens themselves were nothing short of amazing. Sure a lot of them were a little too hot to sit in at first and some of us were a little nervous about the whole skinny-dipping part of the experience, but once you settle in the water of an onsen, there’s no other activity in the world that can touch the bliss of the experience. And we did it about 5 times yesterday. Great times.

Today marks the end of our stay in Yudanaka and I guess I can say I am starting to miss city life a little again. Half of our Golden Week group is going further to Nikko to see some palaces and shrines while the other half (myself included) is going back to Tokyo to get take care some unfinished business i.e. Akihabara and Harajuku.

Below are a few pics of the quiet Yudanaka. I will post some pics of the onsens a little later once I get them from friends.