Day 7 - Izu Hot Springs

Dedicated to all my friends with Asian parents :)

Day 7 – Izu Hot Springs

One thing that I really wanted to do in Japan is bath in the hot springs.  The volcanic activity in Japan makes for some really stellar hot spring resorts.  Mom researched on her own and found a 4.5 star resort called Accueil Sanshiro which is a 30 minute cab ride from Izu, situated on the coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean.

Our Izu cab driver was so great.  Cab drivers are a great example of a cultural difference between our country and Japan.  The cabs are typically in shiny condition and the interiors are super clean.  I even spotted some feather dusters in the trunk which he clearly uses to clean his cab each day.  His outfit was a tie, white collar shirt and sweater-vest with dress slacks.   Oh and let’s not forget the impressive white  gloves. He wore this uniform each day.... to drive a cab!  He ran around our different car doors to open/shut them for us.  Oh, I forgot that the previous day, our cab driver took us to the Golden Temple and dropped us off.  My mom asked if he would wait an hour for us and he said “Hai”.  We left without paying and my mom said, he told us to pay him when we came back.  That’s really trusting!  J  Pretty cool.  Keep in mind, there is no tipping in Japan, either.

The trip to the resort involved numerous tunnels which had been dug straight through entire mountains.  I suspect the Japanese have become very efficient at tunnel building.  I imagine that many years ago, the steep mountainsides completely blocked villages off from one another, especially in the winter.  Now, they burrow straight through and everyone is connected.  Halfway there, as we drive on the coastal hillside, the driver points out Mt Fuji on the right.  Michael asked to stop the car and got this shot:

This was actually on the bullet train

On the way to the Hot Springs

As we roll up to the hot spring resort, we notice some beautiful coastline on the way there.  The hostel is situated overlooking a very beautiful cove with a large island creating a gulf of protection.  The seas were very rough on the day of our arrival as you can see in these pictures:

The hotel is very pretty inside and the attendants provide us the typical Japanese service we’ve grown accustomed to.  They take our bags and introduce us to a short, older Japanese woman dressed in a kimono.  My mom explained that she was going to take care of us and explain everything about the resort.

We opened the doors to our top-floor room and walk inside and WOW…. The room has an incredible view and is a traditional Japanese setup.  The balcony has a hot spring single person bath overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Oh and of course the bathroom has a high-tech bidet in it. 

This thing has more control on it than a space shuttle cockpit!

Traditional Japanese ryokan.  At night, they swap the dining table for floor mattresses.

The shower room. 

View from the balcony

Continuously flowing hot spring bath on the balcony.

Our host sits down in the Asian kneeling position at the coffee table and goes over everything.  She records our dinnertime request, what beer we want, schedules a massage for me and books an hour in their private karaoke room for us J  After that, we are free to settle in and explore the hotel.

Our first stop is the hot spring spa.  We inspect everything and decide we want to head back to the room to get ready to experience it immediately!  Mattie is fussing because he’s grown somewhat shy about getting butt-naked in front of people.  I make it clear that he needs to trust me and stop carrying on about how he’s going to hate it J Can you guess who probably loved the hot spring spa more than anyone else?  So we head back to our rooms and put on our kimono’s, which apparently are all anyone wears around the resort once you check in.

The spa is really spectacular.  Besides the beautiful view of the Pacific and the nearby Island, it is very clean and unlike most spa’s I’ve been in, smells ok.  They have an indoor hot spring bath and an outdoor one, too.  The water trickles into both baths from what appears to be an underground spring.  Given the fact that the water is continuously coming in, I have confidence that this isn’t a normal chlorinated spa bath!  From what my mom and the cab driver told us, the water in these springs have a high level of healthy mineral content which is supposed to be very good for your skin. 

Indoor and Outdoor Hot Springs

Scrubbing stations

Outdoor Hot Spring Bath

We all strip down out of our  kimono’s and proceed to wash ourselves down.  I took my time scrubbing since mom couldn’t emphasize enough how important it is to enter hot spring baths ONLY after cleaning every inch of your body.  Even still, I noticed that the other people that rolled in after us not only scrubbed for like 20 minutes, but they took pleasure in helping each other out by spraying each other’s backs!  Kind of funny to see since American men are fairly uptight things like helping one another shower.

By the time we get in, Mattie has gotten over his shyness and is just focused on enjoying the hot spring bath.  It’s pretty hot though so we bail after about 15 minutes shared between the indoor and outdoor baths.  Very relaxing!

We head back to the room to rest and watch sumo while we wait for our 5:30 dinnertime.  The old Japanese woman comes back around 5:15 and starts preparing our meal.  Not only is she loading up our table with delicious looking Japanese food items, she’s got little cooking stations setup, too!  After she is done, I grabbed a couple photos and a video.  This includes a video of her cooking live abalone at the table.  Warning, this video is not for the squeamish, for any vegetarians or people who are uptight J  For the rest of you, it’s a must-see.

We've got raw lobster, raw clam, raw prawns, raw tuna and pieces of raw squid.  Love the decoration and the use of the lobster shell.

Brandon is the king of raw food eating.  The boy has already passed his old man in terms of what he’s unafraid to eat.  I wasn’t always the most adventurous eater but I believe I hold my own nowadays. He ate everything we put in front of him including raw prawns, raw lobster, abalone, raw clam (it was super crunch and tough) and a variety of other raw foods.  I had never had raw lobster before.  

I honestly don't know what half this stuff was, but it was all delicious.  On the far lower right is an asian warm custard in a bowl.  All of this was a meal in itself but there is also the lobster tray and the lobster miso soup and the abalone!

The spread.

Miso soup with lobster added for flavor and a Sapporo.

This seafood must have been killed minutes before this meal as eating raw shellfish is a slightly risky proposition otherwise.  The irony does not escape me that there is a sign at the hot spring bath asking people not to harm the bugs that live near the outdoor bath and to remove them from the water with a net yet they have no problem cooking live foods for my gastronomic enjoyment J 

After dinner, I head to my massage.  It’s “ok”.  Being massaged through three layers of clothing isn’t my idea of relaxing, which is how she did it.  She did manage to identify the two or three big knots in my back and worked them out for me.  

I headed back to the room to collect the family for karaoke.  We rocked the mic for an hour and everyone took a couple of turns, even Michael.  Mattie and I did a couple of Usher songs and yes, Dustin, Bon Jovi made an appearance, obviously.

Mattie showing off his sumo stomp after dinner.

Our host preparing the fresh abalone

Brandon about to try a raw prawn.  Brave kid!

Mattie aka "White Usher"

Givin it all I got!

The next morning, we did brunch in the resort dining room.  I had low expectations because a) it is a buffet and b) the buffet brunch in the last hotel wasn’t that great.  However, this is a 4.5 star resort and I was blown away.  The food was very exotic, different than the night before and super fresh.

After we eat, we finish our packing and proceed to clean out the gift shop J  My mom used some sort of facial peel scrub the night before in the women’s spa (the men’s spa didn’t have it) and was raving about it.  I have to say, it must be good because it appeared to completely rejuvenate her face.  The spa visit was a great day because mom hasn’t been sleeping much and needed a day to relax and recover. 

Next stop…..  Tokyo!