Hakone Onsen

I like Japan. The people make me feel tall here. (I like Mexico for the same reason ;-) )



In Hakone we stayed at a nice onsen hotel called the Hakoneyumoto Hotel. (Yu means 'hot water' as far as my weak Japanese can tell). Here we are in the lobby.





The maids come and make the beds (and take them away) when you go for your meals. They give full on meals at the hotel. Sorry, forgot to get pictures before sleeping and messing up the beds.



Let's get down to business! Where's the bath!?!? We were in the main building on the 3rd floor. There was a bath for men here which was nice (sorry, no pics, it was hopping with people, particularly two kids running around and splashing. It was the first time I've seen kids at an onsen... and they were certainly misbehaved. Fortunately, they didn't bring the kids to the outdoor bath. Let's go there.



The hotel had a nice greenhouse. Beyond the greenhouse was "the bridge" between buildings.



There were two buildings at the hotel, the first one was 7 stories and the second one was 9 stories with a pool on the roof. Connecting the two buildings was a sort of covered bridge which ran over the old road running from Tokyo to Kyutokaido (and everyone knows how important Kyutokaido is!).



The second, taller building, of the Hakoneyumoto Hotel had bathes for men and bathes for women. This was the busiest onsen that I've been to so far, so I was lucky to find it empty to snap a few quick pictures. This was right before checkout time...sneaking in a hot bath b/c I missed my late-night bath (I fell asleep).
My wife was jealous to see that the men got some little decorations and statues in the men's onsen room. The little buckets are for splashing yourself with water before getting in. You MUST be clean before getting into the onsen bathes.



These are the "outdoor" bathes. There are three indoor pools and two outdoor pools. To the left of where this photo is taken, there are dressing rooms. From the dressing room on, all you get is a long face cloth. (or in my case, a face cloth and a camera). There are little stools and buckets along the wall for getting washed before entering the bathes. The hotel will provide body soap, shampoo and conditioner. It's quite nice.




Looking in to the men's bath from the outside bath.



Looking out from the men's bath to the outdoor bath.



Here's the secret bath. If you look to the right you'll see the entryway.



The outdoor men's bath had a neat manmade waterfall to look at.



A little passage from the main outside bath led to this "hidden" one.








How do you spell "awkward"? Or at least, how do you say it in Japanese? Normally I have my interpreter with me, but yesterday a Japanese man actually came to the bathes after I did... and here I was thinking I was alone! He asked me if I wanted to take a picture... I was like... err... yeah, already did. Then I figured he was being polite and asking if I wanted a picture of MYSELF in the picture. Err... umm... geez... was there a way to politely refuse? "Kekko desu?"

Ugh. I just handed him the camera and smiled as fakely as I could. Graciously, Anseru Adams disappeared shortly after the shot and left me by myself to soak in embarrassment and hot water. (p.s. This photo has been cropped!)