Thanks to all of you who have been reading my blog and have submitted a comment or have dropped me an e-mail. I really appreciate it. It feels great to know there are people out there keeping tabs on my and my experiences here in Japan.

I just discovered that I can insert multiple pictures per post so I’ve decided to start including a lot more pictures and smaller chunks of writing. I just figure that will be more appealing to the visitor and as they say: a picture speaks 1,000 words! Here is another pic from that fabulous “rotemburo” onsen that I found last weekend. Man that was a great weekend of solo exploring and discoveries… I can’t get it out of my mind! So here’s some pics to see what I’ve been thinking about. Enjoy amigos!

This is a pic of the structure as you walk out of the woods and re-connect with the river. These Japanese inns/houses are massive, labyrinth like places smelling of tea and sweet dry wood. They always seem to be impeccably clean. I contribute much of this to the removal of shoes before entering the house- this really keeps down so much dust and dirt. I must admit, I’ve quickly and easily made the transition to this custom and strongly agree with the logic. The bottoms of our shoes are nasty things! We track in poo, dirt, oil, squished bugs, animal hair… you name it. A practice I will definitely consider continuing when I return to the US. Anyway, at this onsen I went in the house and after some nervous searching there was no one to be found. So I shouted out. “Sumimasen!” (S’cuse me? Hello?) and from somewhere deep within the bowels of the place came a “Hai! Domo!” (Yes, please!). After some creaking an old lady appeared and, hoping it would be enough to get my desire across, I said, “Onsen?” 500 yen (just under $5), the lady said, which I happily paid. She said some things in Japanese and, as usual, I just nodded, feigning understanding. She pointed down the stairs and I headed off in that direction. I learned about the little changing room closer to the onsen itself. You can see it in the left in this picture. You leave your clothes in the basket, and with the ‘courtesy towel’ skillfully in place, you head down the stone steps into liquid bliss!