Hot springs and little fishes

The day dawned bright and sunny and I headed off to meet my Japanese friend at Roppongi station to sample the delights of a real, Japanese onsen (public bath).  It is in Odaiba - a part of Tokyo Bay which has been built on reclaimed land.  The train out there has the most wonderful view and is well worth the trip!  What amazed me most about Odaiba was the wind strength.  It was blowing a real gale and whipping up the dust out there - not a bit like the sheltered parts of Tokyo that I usually frequent.

The Onsen is built in the traditional style and the whole place resembles an old fashioned village from the Edo period.  So having taken off your shoes and paid a modest sum for entry you are guided to the counter where you choose  your Yukata - a casual dressing gown type thing that covers you from neck to calf or toe.  There is a good selection in many sizes and we were soon kitted out.

We headed outside.  It was a lovely day and the temperature was not too low.  This part of the Onsen was, what the Americans call, co-ed - mixed, male and female so you keep your yukata firmly tied!  We spotted a place that has a shallow pool with doctor fish in it.  These are small black catfish like fish that just love to chomp their way through the dead skin on your feet.  We plonked our feet in the pool and the agony/ecstasy began.  The feeling was like a million bubbles bursting all over your feet - very gentle and very tickly!!  A fellow Japanese guest screamed throughout the whole process ....  but kept her feet firmly in the water!  The effect, after 15 minutes, is beautifully manicured feet - quite the best I've ever had!  I will return.

The rest of the place (single sex places this time) was full of hot springs to wallow in, steam rooms to indulge yourself and a couple of places which were very unusual - there was the sand bath (yep, had to have a go at that) and the hot salt bath (nope, not doing that!).  In the sand bath we were wrapped in our yukatas, in towels and then buried in hot volcanic sand.  The sand was at 43 C.  They bury you from your neck all the way to your toes.  The sand is hot and very heavy and they keep checking on you.  Believe me they need to!  You cannot move and you perspire very heavily for 15 minutes then they unwrap you and guide  you to a cold shower.  I'm sure it does you good.  It left me feeling very sleepy and totally spaced out! 

We took a break, ate an ice cream and then headed off for lunch.  There were plenty of places to be massaged and pummelled if that was your fancy.  It was a great day out - another tick in the box for things to do in Japan!

Jet Lag and other irritations

I know it seem churlish of me, but I have to confess to being fed up with jet lag - nice to be able to travel, I hear you say, so stop moaning!  It's just that, as I sit here, at 2.42 in the morning, there is no one else on line to chat to so it feels as though I'm the last person on the planet.  I'm not one to suffer from insomnia so this is a frustrating experience for me.

The reason for the jet lag is that we have been back in the UK doing the recruitment for Dave's school out here in Japan.  It was great fun to be able to see some old friends and to spend my mother's birthday with her.  We arranged a lunch for a few friends and family and we had a fabulous day at Brancaster.  The sun shone, the wind was gentle and the company was fantastic.  Ryan drove up from London just to be with us and that was such a wonderful thing.  It was also an absolute treat to be able to spend a couple of days with Kirsty who helped me to take out an old cat flap and put in a new one for my mum.  It was not without its tribulations - of the four screws one was not going to undo and we had to enlist the help of a neighbour - brute force was the answer and neither of us had the oomph!  Fitting the new one was a cinch by comparison.  Dave, meanwhile, was travelling the country, observing teachers and working very hard!  Do I feel guilty?  Not really  :)

I was also lucky enough to spend the following day in London with Jemma, Ruth, Kirsty, Manda,and Jean searching for (and finding) the perfect wedding dress for 17th April.  What a blessing to to take part in that rite of passage and what fun we had.  Lunch was good too - a Dim Sum restaurant just off Carnaby Street. 

While we were in the UK our lap top picked up a virus - it was a huge inconvenience and I tried to get PC World in Swindon to fix it for us.  They happly took my eighty pounds to fix it and then had the gall to tell me they didn't have time to get to it!  We were not happy.  Still they did refund the money - just as well!!!  However, it meant that we were without internet for a couple of days and having arrived back after the long haul flight I had to set to and resurrect the old desk top machine that has been sitting in the corner of the study for months since our arrival in Tokyo.  Actually, it's quite nice to be able to see a huge screen so it's not all bad news!

So back to the beginning - now I'm nine hours out of synch with Tokyo and writing my blog!  The joys of travel!  Off to make tea now - care to join me?