Trip to Arima Hot Springs and Himeji Castle

It was Easter weekend, and I didn't even realize it here until the president of Kobe Kaisei College told me. There were no Easter bunnies and pastel chocolates around to clue me in. Anyway, I spent the weekend as a serious tourist. I did go to mass in honor of my mother, but as it was all Japanese to me, I left early.

On Saturday, L'Shawn and Doug and I went to Arima, a town up in the mountains near here a la Estes Park. It has an onsen (hot springs) and is very charming. We took a cog railroad up the mountain, which put the one up Pikes Peak to shame. I didn't think the mountains were all that high around here, but I changed my thinking. The views from the car were amazing, with mountain cherry blossoms (a recurring theme around here). When we got to the top of the cable car line, we took a gondola up the rest of the way to the town. Really fun. You don't have to get there that way--in fact, we rode the bus home. There was a geocache at the end of the gondola line, and I picked up a little Japanese cell phone charm from that. We found our way into the town (with some difficulty) and had a wonderful lunch of curry udon noodles. Then I went to my first 'onsen'--hot springs. It was inside, not out, and apparently this one is famous for its dark colored water. First, you go to the shoe locker where you leave your shoes and get a key. Then you go to the locker room where you leave all your clothes and get another key. At onsens you have to go in the nude, so they are separated by sexes. When you get into the bath, you first must wash off at one of the many little sprayers located around. Then you get into the onsen. It was relaxing, though honestly, I prefer the outside ones like Ojo Caliente in New Mexico. It was a little like going to the hot tub at Miramont except for the naked part. I didn't mind being naked, as everyone else was too. And there were all ages, from little girls to old women. What did bother me was the dressing room where I noticed all the cute young chicks with their super fancy underwear, which was somewhat unlike my utilitarian duds. Anyway, we had a great day.

We finished it off by going to a sushi restaurant in Kobe. This one is a chain, and it's really neat because the restaurant is surrounded by a conveyer belt. Little dishes of sushi and a few other things, like chicken tenders, and desserts go around the booths. If you see something you like, you just grab it. At the end, they count your plates and give you a bill. That was a nice way for me to try different types of sushi, because if it looked too disgusting, I just let it slide on by. My dinner was very good, and it only cost about 5 bucks, which is a very good deal here in Japan.

I have been warned that the summers here in Kobe are insufferably hot and humid, so I decided I'd better do as much touring around as I can while the weather is still nice. So on Sunday I went to Himeji Castle, known to be one of the most beautiful in Japan. It is only about 40 minutes or so by train from here, and it has lots of cherry trees. So now's the time. I went on this adventure alone. It was fairly easy to get there, and again, I found a geocache. The castle was very crowded. I heard very little English around me, though. There was a German tour, and I saw some French folks in the gardens. But mostly there were Japanese there. The castle is 5 stories tall, I believe, and once we entered the castle, we had to take our shoes off. I didn't know about this, and I was wearing sandals. Therefore, I had to walk all around barefoot. The staircases in this castle are so steep, they remind me of ladders. It was hard work! When I finished the tour, I put my sandals back on, and noticed that I had 2 big blisters on the end of my toes. I was thinking that making people remove their shoes was an exagerration on the part of the Japanese; however, young women around here are very fond of stillettos, which they wear even to climb around the rocks of an old castle. Those shoes could definitely do a number on the wooden floors of the old castle.

Anyway, it's Monday and I'm back to work. That is definitely less strenuous than all this touring.