From Familiar to New

Today was about new experiences.

I was standing at the 7-Eleven around the corner from my hostel - a thirty second walk away - looking to buy some instant noodles for lunch.

I turned around and noticed outside, to my amazement, it was snowing. Never in my life have I seen actual snowflakes falling from the sky. As fast as I could I ran out the 7-Eleven into the street and just stood in awe - it was snowing. I literally had tears forming in my eyes from the happiness I was experiencing; I was like a child.

I quickly ran back to the hostel to find Mathew, who similarly had never seen snow before either. We just ran out into the street and stood in absolute amazement.

In the photo above it was just tiny specs, but in person it was just flying through the sky - incredible.

People from the hostel saw us and were just bewildered at how happy this tiny bit of snow made us, but it really did.

I had no real plans for the rest of the day. I got talking to a Canadian bloke, Nathan; he planned to check out an onsen hot spring. I figured why not, I'll tag along to check it out. It has been something I have wanted to do since my first trip to Japan but never got around to it.

Fitzey, who has a number of tattoos, was not allowed to join us so I had to ditch him to go check this out. Tattoos are very taboo in Japan; historically it was only the Yakuza gangsters who had tattoos and they are still very traditional about it - not allowed in onsen.

We jumped on a local train and a bus and after getting lost a little and wandering around asking people we managed to find our destination - Naniwanoyu.

Our first guess to where this place was turned out to be a funeral parlour, not exactly where we were trying to get to. It was still very cool to see; the detail on this casket was incredible.

A little more wandering we came across a little Shiba Inu tied up in the street - a Japanese breed of dog. He was so cute I had to stop and pet him, absolutely beautiful dog and very friendly. 

Eventually we made it to the hot spring. It was on the 8th floor of a building. 

Going into it I knew a little about what I was in for. It was a male only separated bath and you have to be completely naked. 

Walking in you find a locker, take off all your clothes and go into the bathing section. Both Nathan and I had no real idea what we were doing but just worked it out. First up you must wash yourself; sit on a little chair and use a shower hose to wash yourself with the provided shower gel.

Following that we wandered into the outdoor area, where we found a few different baths. I was pretty keen to just jump in. Being exposed like that is pretty new to me and all the Japanese guys were staring - we were the only white guys in the whole place, with not a word of English uttered. 

We spent the next 45 minutes relaxing in this bath, talking about travel and life in general. You meet so many great people travelling, everyone has their story but we all have the same motive and passion which is a good point of discussion. 

After, we moved to a little round hot tub style bath that you can just lay in and relax. I just stared up at the sky, freezing cold outside but enjoying the warmth and relaxation from the constantly flowing water. The scenery in this outdoor area was amazing - traditional Japanese trees and music quietly playing in the background.

Obviously photography isnt allowed in these so the photos above are from Google, but it gives a good idea of what it was like!

We left and headed back to the hostel after grabbing a quick bite to eat just outside the onsen.

Back at the hostel we met a Japanese guy from the Fukushima area who was wanting to learn English. He had only been learning for a month but his English was already quite impressive. He took us to a local izakaya (small pub with food and drinks), where he ordered a number of dishes for us and drinks to go with. 

Spent the the night talking to the American girl, Haley, and the kiwi dude Rowan we met the night before. Nathan had a flight to Bangkok and left after a beer - he was kind enough to give me his big jacket that he had no need for as next stop was the heat of South East Asia, should come in handy!

No idea what I'll be up to tomorrow, but thats the beauty of hostel life, you can meet people and do things you wouldnt have expected!