04 August 2014

My Onsen Experience.

So, I have finally blogged about my trip to Japan and you can read more about it here, here, here, here and here. Total of five wonderful days :)

People: "You go all the way to Japan and if you don't do onsen, it's a waste"


People: "No one will look at you. They all have the same thing as you do"


Then, other people say, "You must force yourself to go for it"


Thank you, people, for saying all that. Thank you also for "forcing" myself to go for it. It was one of the best things I have ever experienced in my 26 years of life. Serious. No kidding.


Since it's quite a thing that I love so much, I shall share on how it goes and stuff.


Most hotels that are not in the city will usually have onsen facility. They are mostly separated, men and women. I have yet to see any onsen that has both genders combined. That is one thing I definitely do not want to experience, thank you.


So, in your room, you will have this Japanese cotton robe called Yukata. 


Okay, I think I shall say from how I experience it, with advise from people whom I went with, of course.


After dinner, I went back to my room, did some unpacking to pack again properly the addition flyers that I got, sat on the bed and rested a while. Must let my food be settled down first.


Then, I put on the yukata with nothing else underneath. Nothing. I made sure I tied it correctly and tightly. I wouldn't want any "accident" to happen on the way to the onsen place. 




Once I was at the onsen place, I chose a locker. It's at that place where I need to keep everything. Room key, handphone, watch and yukata. YUKATA. The distance from the locker place to the onsen area is far. More than 20 steps. Far.


We were given one normal-sized towel and a small hand towel. No one is allowed to bring in the normal towel. Only the small one can.


So, want to cover what? Cover top then bottom how? Cover bottom then top how? SO, COVER YOUR FACE! Hahaha. Straight malu betul.


So, yukata are gone and towel gone. What I have is just my whole self and a mini towel and 6 ladies in the place. At that time, I was still feeling very not myself. I just want to run to a corner and hide. 


Anyways, I took photos of how onsen place looks like. This is not the one I went at Hotel Rosa Blanca (Day I), which is by far the best. In these photos, the onsen is at another hotel where there were no guests using it so I just took some shots.


The first thing to do before going into onsen pool is to clean yourself. Another word is shower. Open shower. Hah.

This is how it looks like. A small cubicle. There are about 10-15 of these cubicles. That's why no need to bring the big towels in. After the shower, straight go inside the pool. How convenient.


My first time trying it felt a bit awkward. My second time onwards, I felt like I own those place okay. No more shy whatsoever. Mini towel also holding like a boss. No need to cover anything. It was such a nice feeling. Such empowerment kind. Not really but kind of. 




Then, after that, I made my way into the hot water. Feet in first test water. Really hot. Then go knee-deep. Then waist deep and then slowly full body in till neck. The first 20 seconds, it will feel like as though you going to faint because it is super hot. Like boiling water hot, but surprisingly it becomes very bearable after that 20 seconds. 


One of the onsen that I went to had a cold breeze blowing at the mini garden kind and it was just a perfect combination. Cold on the outside and hot inside. It was perfect.


When you realized that your heartbeat is beating faster and faster and feeling a bit light-headed, that's your body telling you to come out and enough onsen for the day. 


Once, I refused to listen to my body and wanted to dip inside longer, I almost had a blackout when I came up. Lesson learnt: listen to your body. They never lie. Hah.




Then, as you enter into the room, you wrap yourself with a normal towel and proceed to make-me-beautiful corner. This is the place where most of the beauty stuffs are provided. You can blow your hair, put on your make-up or just sit all day long looking at yourself in the mirror. 


I remembered the last onsen I went, there were so many things on the counter that we ended up trying. All the Shiseido products. 




Then, you put on your yukata again before leaving to your room. My room in this case.


Oh one more thing about onsen. The moment you go into the water, your skin immediately feels smoother. It must be the minerals that's in there. Locals recommended us not to wash our body after onsen. Just wipe dry and go sleep in the yukata.


That's what I did exactly. 


Best sleeps ever after onsen.


More onsen experience to come.