Day 82 – Yokahama

Nov 18th

Naked Time!
Falyn and I headed to the Minato Mirai district of Yokahama to track down the Manyo Club for our very own onsen experience. Onsens are public hot spring bathhouses that use water from specific water sources that are thought to cure certain types of aliments and diseases. Since Falyn had tattoos (and tattoos are a sign of gang violence in Japan), she wasn’t allowed in the facility and had to set off on her own adventures. Undaunted that I should face the establishment myself, I paid my entrance fee, removed my shoes and headed inside. (Of course, it took me about 30 mins to try and figure out what the cashier was saying first.) Then, I selected my yukata (robe). I selected a beautiful, flowery pink design off the nearby picture board and nodded a “domo agrigato” to the woman. Then, I headed inside the women’s changing room to stripe down and lock my things in my locker. As the only foreigner, I clearly stuck out like a “fish out of water.” I did my best not to follow what others were doing, but I definitely took a peak to see if I looked crazy. Afterward, I headed bare-ass to the communal bathhouse, which was just passed some small, sit-down shower stalls stocked with shampoo, conditioner, face wash and soup. Since I was running out of conditioner on the ship, I took my time to shampoo and deeply condition a few times. Fully satisfied that I was squeaky clean, I made my way further into the bathhouse to find groups of Japanese (naked) women chatting in various pools and baths around the complex. I settled myself into a nice, quiet spot in the far right corner of the outside rock garden. I had a steaming, flowing pool all to myself along with a beautiful view of the Yokahama skyline (since the onsen was in a high rise building). After nearly falling asleep in the warm comfortable surrounding, I decided to try the saunas since a women passed along a free coupon when I initially walked in. There was quiet a selection, including an herbal sauna, steam sauna and salt sauna. Since the herbal sauna burned my nose and the steam sauna was too normal, I spent some time in the salt sauna. When I walked in there was a big pile of salt sitting in the middle of the room, which had tiled seats and shower hoses surrounding the outside. Even though the sign on the wall clearly said “refrain from following,” I just had to take a peak to figure out what to do in there! The women were scrubbing down with the salt, sitting around and rinsing it off a few minuets later. I had a blast scrubbing myself down from head to toe, but my sweat nearly washed myself clean it so was hot. A little scared I was sweating away too much water, I rinsed off then showered again and got into my pink yukata (robe).

Yukata Time!
This place turned out to be the most fun playground for a pampered girl. After getting into my yukata, I headed to an area near the exit of the women’s changing room where I had seen hair brushes, hair dryers and products galore. Well, it turned out you could use whatever you wanted. Each vanity was stocked with mouse, jell, hair dryers, lotions, stylers, creams, everything! I had so much fun playing with all of it and beautifying myself in the process. The next are had all these face treatments and make up to use. I gave myself a glycolic face peal before moisturizing and realizing I needed to stop before I walked out of there looking like Japanese Barbie. (I made sure to stay far away from the make up.) After re-dressing in my “street” clothes, I wandered around the onsen complex a little more to discover the place was like Disneyland for old people. There was a restaurant, multiple drink bars, a top-deck garden, an arcade, an internet room, a room filled with lazy boys that had TV monitors you could watch movies on, in additional to spa and healing services. The place had treatments from color therapy to finger pressure therapy. I was in heaven, but pulled myself back to reality around 1:30 when I knew I just had to get out before I could do any more damage.

Lunch, Mochi & Cosmoworld
Totally invigorated, I headed across the street to the World Porters, which was a five-story mall with a massive selection of restaurants on the first floor. I sat down in Sario, a casual Japanese place, and munched on a bao it (white steamy dumpling) and gyoza (pan-fried shrimp dumplings). I stopped in the supermarket to read up on celeb gossip (which was unfortunately in Japanese) before finding an ice cream mochi stall! I had been hearing about this stuff the whole trip, and finally could find out what all the hype was about. I had one banana-chocolate and one honey cranberry mochi wrapped, so I could take them out to Cosmoland, an amusement park that boasts a clock ferris wheel that can be seen all over the city. Since it was a Tuesday, the park was a little quiet, but it was still a nice place to find a bench and enjoy some wonderfully softened ice cream. I walked back toward the harbor, only to run into Spencer, Dan and Friend relaxing with some noodles at an outside shop. I stopped to hear their stories of Japan, before reboarding the Explorer to contemplate the best day I had in Japan.

Highs and Lows
My “high” was naked time! My “low” was when Goldie and I watched us pull away from Yokahama via the gym windows.