Japanese with anime voice: episode83
Hello, I’m Sachi.
Today, June 26, is Open-air Bath Day. The tourist association and ryokan association of Yubara Town, Okayama Prefecture, established the day because June 26 can be read as “露天風呂 (Rotenburo)” in Japanese.
Open-air baths are nice, aren’t they? Every summer, my partner and I go on a two-day and one-night trip to a hot spring, which we call “the most luxurious trip of the year. We always stay at a ryokan that has a guest room with an open-air bath. We check in around 3:00 p.m. and stay in the open-air bath until dinner without going sightseeing. After dinner, I stay in the open-air bath until I go back to bed. While enjoying a few drinks. Drinking beer in the open-air baths is really the best. The next morning, we get up early and stay in the open-air baths until almost check-out time. We enjoy the open-air baths as much as we can. The purpose of our trip is to enjoy the hot springs. Sightseeing is secondary. If we had time before check-in, we would do a little sightseeing, but if not, we would go straight to the ryokan on the first day. Since we are staying at a nice ryokan, and it is only once a year, it makes no sense not to focus on the hot springs.
The first year we went on a hot spring trip to Izu. It was a very expensive trip. It was an expensive ryokan, so I had high expectations, but the view was not so good. The parking lot was right below our room, so when we got up to take a bath, we could see everything from the parking lot. It was not good. There was a board to hide the bath, but if you use it, you can’t see the outside view from the bath, so the open-air view is meaningless. And the food was unbelievably large. It was just too much. My partner usually eats 1 kg of rice by himself, but even he couldn’t finish it. Breakfast was also included in the package, but a large 出汁巻き卵 (dashimaki tamago: rolled egg) was served at a timing that I did not understand. We were so full that we wondered why it was served at that time. It was almost torture. Torture to make us eat a lot of rice.
Speaking of torture, we both got sick before the trip. We debated cancelling the trip, but we really wanted to go, so we pulled ourselves together and got our health back. We managed to recover the day before, so we headed to the ryokan we had reserved as planned. When we arrived at the ryokan, the staff told us that the air conditioner in the room we had reserved was not working properly, so they had prepared a room one grade higher. How lucky I was, I thought. I was glad we didn’t cancel, but the truth was that we both still had a sore throat. The room we were given and the open-air bath would have been great, but we were preoccupied with our sore throats. The only problem with this ryokan was that the mattress was too low rebound. It made it very difficult to sleep. And since I had a sore throat, I couldn’t rest because I wasn’t sure if I slept well or not at all. When I said it was hard to sleep on such a low resilience mattress, my partner said it was just the right amount of softness for me. But you know, when I woke up because of my throat, I looked to the side and saw that he was sleeping on the floor, out of the mattress. Most of his body was on the flooring. I thought it was definitely because the mattress was hard to sleep on. So, even though it was such a nice room, I only have memories of a sore throat and remember very little else. It was almost torture, wasn’t it?
We have only stayed in a hotel that was not a hot spring once in all of our trips. It was not a ryokan, but a Western-style hotel. I think it was in Ishikawa Prefecture. I chose it only because it had an ocean view and a cat’s foot bathtub. We were surprised when we went to the hotel. It was just a bathtub on a large deck. It was not a hot spring, just hot water. The only thing was that the bathtub had cat feet. I regretted why I chose such a place. I thought, “If it’s not a hot spring, I don’t care if it has cat’s paws or not. If that’s the case, it would be the same as having a bathtub on our balcony. I don’t know why I couldn’t notice that. The ocean view was nice, though.
The best ryokan was a ryokan in Awara Onsen, Fukui. It was also rather expensive, but the hospitality was worth it. Check-in was personalized, and I think tea was served. When we went to our room, there were cute Japanese sweets on the table. Even in expensive ryokans, it is common to find small individually wrapped buns, but that ryokan was different. It was a proper Japanese confectionery, like those served in a tea ceremony room. Dinner was served in the room and was delicious, and of course, the quantity was just right. The open-air bath was not in such a position that others could see it. The amenities were from Sekkasei, and I thought the choice of amenities was tasteful. What was especially wonderful was when the staff saw us off when we left! A couple of them waved us off with smiles until we couldn’t see the car anymore! That was the best thing of all. This is the only ryokan I know of that sees its guests off like this. Even if I had had a bad experience with something else, it wouldn’t have mattered anymore if they had seen me off like that.
Well, I will never get tired of going on this year’s hot spring trip, which brings me memories from year to year! What kind of trip will it be? I am looking forward to it. If you ever travel to Japan, please take the plunge and stay at a ryokan with an open-air bath. Putting sightseeing aside for a moment, spend some time at a ryokan and enjoy Japanese culture. I recommend this way of experiencing Japanese culture as a way of traveling.
