Tokyo Blog

After a period of intense hard work, the light at the end of the tunnel came in the form of a trip to a famous Onsen resort town called Kusatsu in Gunma prefecture, to relax and unwind. It was my friend Sam’s birthday, so a bunch of Japanese guys he knows organised a birthday outing. An Onsen is a bathing pool filled with naturally heated mineral water, which is made hot by the volcanic activity below the surface. The water bubbles up naturally in ponds and springs all over the area, and even flows in rivers in places, emitting a strong sulphuric odour. We got a coach from Ikebukuro in Tokyo, 4 hours’ drive up Japan’s so-called ‘Romantic Road’. We stopped off first after about 2 hours for a break at a service station and me and Trent bought some salted barbecued pork for breakfast, then we carried on until we left the highway and began to drive through small towns and villages. After about 3 hours we stopped off at a Manju factory. Manju is a small dark brown cake filled with sweet bean paste. These were free to try so we wrangled two each. Each time we stopped the Japanese guys bought loads of supplies; the first time we stopped they bought Chuppa-Chups (enough for the whole group), rice crackers, sweet tofu jellies, crisps, and literally bags of other snacks and confectionery. Second time, at the Manju factory, they crossed the car park to a grocery stall and bought two packs of oranges and a bag of tomatoes that we ate whole, like apples, rapidly as the coach was about to leave.

When we arrived at the hotel in Kusatsu, our hangovers had been removed by force feeding ourselves the fruits of the Japanese guys’ shopaholicism (this was Saturday morning, and we had to be up early – 7.00am). We checked in and then donned the traditional Japanese gear you get given at Ryokans and Ryokan Hotels. Ours was the latter, but the outfits were good. We all put on a Yukata (cotton robe), tied it with a belt off to the left side (where you wear you sword), then covered over with an overgarment for the Yukata. I forgot the name, but it is short on the body, ties in the middle of your chest and has enormously wide sleeves, with a concealed pocket in the sleeve of each side where you can store other weapons. So I put my Nike baseball boots on, Trent put on his white leather loafers, and we hit the town straight away. We stopped off at every shop on the way to try out the Japanese pickles, which were amazing, and then headed up to the main Onsen of Kusatsu where we hung out for a couple of hours. You have to take off everything, and go in stark naked, of course. The water is only just tolerable at the near end of the spring, but as you head down towards the far end, it gets even hotter and massive clouds of steam come at you over the water, carried by the wind. Actually, it felt like I was cooking alive, but afterwards I felt extremely invigorated, and the healthiest I’d felt in ages. We went to an old woman’s shop on the way back for green tea and some Konyaku, which is a vegetable or bean-based jelly covered in Miso. More health was imparted. Then it all began to unravel as we kicked off the Nomikai; Sat around a table in the hotel, we threw down lots of beer and sake and then had a second Onsen at the hotel. This was also amazing: a small but equally scalding pool in a rock garden at the top of a wooded hill, patches of snow here and there on the way down.

After that more drinking, a Japanese evening meal, more drinking, a bowl of instant Ramen from the supermarket plus dried fish and squid, more rice crackers, more crisps, miso mackerel, tinned horse (yes, tinned horse), 3 litres of red wine and more manju. The next day we had Onsen again at the hotel spa, a huge Japanese breakfast incorporating the dreaded natto, and then rehydrated from the vending machines in the hotel lobby. Kimochikatta da yo! View the meagre flickr offerings here.