Epic fails and Onsens

What is the ultimate form of relaxation? Well for me it is taking a bath. A nice, hot, lightly scented bath. So I get home and I'm super excited to draw up an awesome bath pour moi...and i go about doing so, and just when it is all the way full and I go to put in the extra ingredient ( not chemical X), namely coconut oil, I realize that the water I have been blasting is ICE COLD!!! Total drag. It reminded me of a day of being butt naked in the rain...in Japan...with a whole bunch of other butt naked women. If you have fantasized of this sort of scene well the one I experienced is not your cup of tea. Lo and behold an onsen is a public bath. Its separated of course between men and women but modesty between your own sex is not an issue. Believe you me it took a while to get used to it but as soon as I hit the mineral baths I couldn't have cared less. It was simply blissful! Luckily I was able to enjoy the experience twice, once in Kaga and the first time in a shopping center lol.
The location of the first one was sort of random but oh well. It was really cool though, because it had a ton of different baths and basically relax stations. There were even huge barrels that you you sit in, and basically stones beds that had a few inches of water on them, and stone head rests. I was so relaxed laying there under the bamboo shade with the rain gently dripping through the cracks, (was an open air bath) that I nearly fell asleep. My host mom actually did fall asleep haha.
Kaga was amazing though. Before we even went to the Onsen we first went for a little nature walk through the woods. It was totemo kirei! There was also a place where you could have tea and the tables were built right above the water of the river the path was next to. We had to pass across stepping stones to continue on our path and it took us right through that cluster of tables. Some of the guys went way in front of the group and ended up getting lost. Poor Nakata Sensei had to run around trying to find them. We finally made it to the actual onsen though.It was also in the forest and built right next to the river. Was so peaceful,just watching the birds and hearing the river's voice...untill I decided to blow bubbles underwater for fun and all the Japanese ladys laughed at me. lol.

Peace looks like this.

This says it all.

Kaga didn't have as many different types of baths as the first location, but the peace and beauty of it was ethreal. If you want secluded nature and exquisite simplicity go to places such as Kaga. If you want a wide varity of baths, and sauna's go to places in the city or closer around the city. Either way I'm so happy that I was able to enjoy such a wonderful and different set of experiences.

The onsen in Kaga looked a lot like this only it was open air and a lot of bamboo,but we did have a view of the river.

Before you get into the baths you have to shower off first. This also goes for home baths. Its actually a relaxing part of the whole thing. If you were to feel uncomfortable just remember that everyone else is naked to...you just sort of forget.haha.