onsen

even though tokyo can compete with legoland for the world's most exciting theme park, still it’s always a good idea to just sit back on one of the trains, fall asleep, and wake up at the other end of the line, in the middle of japan’s fairy tale backcountry.
especially on a day like today, with blue skies, and two girls leaving the country soon.



last weekend in japan for anouk, a san francisco friend of taiwanese columbia classmate anderson. she’s been crossing japan from north to south during the past month, and has three more months of traveling in asia ahead... anouk kluyskens by the way, (like brother pieter) born in gent in 75, from two flemish parents who emigrated to montreal when she was three.
and tomo’s flying out on tuesday, joining jan gehl’s public space research lab in copenhagen for a month.



nikkō, two hours north of tokyo, is famous for its temples and for kō-yō, the fall foliage season, when the maple trees on the surrounding hills turn bright red and yellow. colorful leaves have almost disappeared though, along with most of the tourists, and we decide to skip the town and its temples alltogether in favor of a hike up to yumoto onsen village. so we end up having the fresh air, the wooden boardwalk and the volcanic scenery most of the time for ourselves.




yumoto at the other end of the mirror

two lakes, three waterfalls and a marshy wetland later, we arrive at yumoto. the sulphur is hanging in the streets of the town. so how can we resist to a traditional dip in a real outdoor onsen? the japanese are serious about bathing, especially about their ‘onsen’, natural hot springs in volcanic areas. even in our shabby ‘hole in the ground’, everyone dutyfully respects the (un)dresscode, the cold and hot water cycles, the obligatory chat with the fellow males, the salty green tea afterwards.
a superb ritual - great to get something in return for all those earthquakes lately...



body sinks willingly into a greenish vinaigrette of 69°C, mind on sulphur sails off to vals, ranong, damascus, idaho, istanbul.