We drove the 2 hours along Sagami Bay over to Odawara, and then up towards Hakone and ended up at Yunessan Hot Springs. I can only show and tell you part of the day, as my camera battery died.Yunessan has traditional onsen on one level (no clothes allowed) and swimsuits on this second level area, and the outside.
It's kind of like a Disneyland for hot tubbers. Here there were large pools that we started out soaking in. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
We got there in time for lunch, so we ate at 'Auntie's.' I posed with her. What are those things in her basket?
This was Diane's lunch. It was pasta carbonara. I love the poached egg in the middle of it. What kills me over here with their pasta dishes, is often the garnish is seaweed. Ewww!
In the largest jacuzzi, there were different parts to it, with different jets. Pretty nice for getting the dead skin loosened up.
This is in another part of the large jacuzzi pool. Upstairs there was a grecian cool pool, and chocolate pool, and some others we didn't go up to.
Diane decided not to do this one, but I thought it would be fun. These are sucker type fish that eat the dead skin off of you. You have to dip your feet before and after, presumably to disinfect you.
The fish cannot eat all day long, so they only open it every few hours for groups to go in 5 minutes at a time. The water was cool. Obviously you can't cook the fish and expect them to eat, too.
It's kind of like a Disneyland for hot tubbers. Here there were large pools that we started out soaking in. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
We got there in time for lunch, so we ate at 'Auntie's.' I posed with her. What are those things in her basket? 
This was Diane's lunch. It was pasta carbonara. I love the poached egg in the middle of it. What kills me over here with their pasta dishes, is often the garnish is seaweed. Ewww!
In the largest jacuzzi, there were different parts to it, with different jets. Pretty nice for getting the dead skin loosened up.
This is in another part of the large jacuzzi pool. Upstairs there was a grecian cool pool, and chocolate pool, and some others we didn't go up to.
Diane decided not to do this one, but I thought it would be fun. These are sucker type fish that eat the dead skin off of you. You have to dip your feet before and after, presumably to disinfect you.
The fish cannot eat all day long, so they only open it every few hours for groups to go in 5 minutes at a time. The water was cool. Obviously you can't cook the fish and expect them to eat, too.It was the oddest sensation to have them sucking on your skin. It was like light tickling. Of course, I got in, and my camera battery died. I tried re-starting it up. It opened up again, but fizzle. I then took out the battery and rubbed it on my upper dry-part of my swimsuit. I re-inserted them and was able to get off this shot:
This doesn't do the scene justice, as when you move (getting a camera battery in, etc.) it disturbs the fish. There are only about 1/4 the fish that were eating on my legs. In a group of about 20 people, only 2 others had about this many fish. Everyone else must loofa every day, because they hardly had any fish on them. Me? I looked like I was wearing wookie boots. TONS of fish on me! It was comical. I tried to explain in my broken Japanese to the person next to me that white rice tastes better than brown.
This doesn't do the scene justice, as when you move (getting a camera battery in, etc.) it disturbs the fish. There are only about 1/4 the fish that were eating on my legs. In a group of about 20 people, only 2 others had about this many fish. Everyone else must loofa every day, because they hardly had any fish on them. Me? I looked like I was wearing wookie boots. TONS of fish on me! It was comical. I tried to explain in my broken Japanese to the person next to me that white rice tastes better than brown.Diane and I went upstairs and outside. The first one had coffee brewed in it. It smelled like Japanese coffee. If the brown color didn't put you off, the near drip-heat of the water made us shy away. There are also pools with curry, tea and wine.
Instead, we found a lovely shallow pool with a nice woodland waterfall backdrop, and finished our soaking there. We joked that it was because of Diane's word of wisdom issues (it's a Mormon thing). Curry isn't a taboo for Mormons, but I'm beginning to dislike curry after being in Japan this long. I used to like curry, but you get it so often here... but that's a different rant for a different day.
The reality is, we were as limp as al dente noodles, and hiking up even more steps just wasn't in us.
They give you a plastic band that kind of looks like a watch, but you can charge things you need, like food, along the way. At the end, you place your 'magic watch' in a machine that reads it and gives you a ticket. You then pay the fees. Then, you get a card to leave the area. The Japanese are really into 'exit tickets.'
The next day, Diane and I went to the airport, and had our last little dinner together before she headed out. I was so sad to see her leave. What a lifting of spirits to see her and laugh with her.
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