Open air mud baths Onsen Hoyoland - Thu 12 Mar

The next destination, as dusk turned to night, was a mixed open air mud baths called Onsen Hoyoland.

If you click this picture to make the image bigger and read the text, you'll see how to promote a mud bath, and should get an immature laugh by the end.

The baths were a sensory joy. An inside hot sulfur bath, an indoor mud bath and warm hosedown from a proprietor, then outdoors to both a very hot and then a mild mud bath in the muddy nuddy. Also a steam room and a piped waterfall of clear hot springs water outdoors.

I luxuriated in packing on the squidgy mud in the hot bath, then was momentarily concerned when red splotches appeared in variegation over my body - they shortly cleared, phew!

The visual images from the experience really stamped into my head- backlit, hopping around in the mud, dark sky above, a little towel on our heads.

We heard that the baths had to put up screens between the mixed bathing areas, and that not many women now came to the facility. Indeed, Anso and the other French woman she met at the baths informed Kero that a guy had been scampering around after them.

We bussed back to town and initially tried and failed to find a restaurant recommended at Nogami Honkan's front desk.

On the way, a singing voice could be heard from somewhere. Curiosity piqued, it turned out to be coming from a bag of rubbish that contained a big Doraemon alarm clock that was endlessly singing "It's morning, it's morning, let's get up!" to a very catchy kitschy melody in Japanese. During our photo shoot, we discovered it would not be silenced. No wonder it was turfed.


We eventually had a late dinner at a Lonely Planet recommended inexpensive restaurant, after the prerequisite hunting. The 40sish waitress there reminded me of Cybil Shepherd, not that you could tell from my picture. Ah well.