Since we kicked off our travels, I’ve learned many things about marriage. One of the most important of these things:  If you don’t give your husband time to contemplate doing something he considers awkward or embarrassing, he’s more likely to do it.

It was with this in mind I told him of our most recent trip to Yudanaka.  I went on for weeks about the monkeys. It was all monkeys all the time. Oh how many we would see! How fun it would be! In the midst of this celebrating I may have forgotten to mention the detail about getting naked with strangers in a large outdoor bathhouse.

I figured he’d be less likely to put up a fight if I only gave him a few minutes notice.  With this in mind, we packed the beagle off to camp and headed north.  A few hours later we found ourselves in the charming streets of the Shibu Spa.

It was only once we checked in to the ryokan that he found out that it was known for having six different types of hot springs available for it’s guests to bath in.  Granted, at this point he didn’t realize that it was the only option to achieve optimal weekend cleanliness as there are no in room showers…but that didn’t occur to him as we skipped around town to see the various sites.

Somewhere along our walk we came across a sign promising something that in all of our travels, we’d never seen.

In all fairness to the Tobacco Diety, he’s not exactly very well named as he’s actually supposed to help one quit smoking.

What he also was? Very lonely.

Placed in a small box next to a family washing machine, the Tobacco Deity is clearly not a very popular one.  I could have told you this without having to see the poor Deity’s conditions as each floor of our office building has a sealed smoking room and that as recently as five years ago, everyone just smoked that their desks.  Actually, some still do after most people leave.

Fair to say, this is not a very popular Deity.

Other things we saw along our way?

Buddha

Dressed with protection from the cold.

More Buddha

Unfortunately for T, we’d decided to see the snow Monkey’s on Sunday as they don’t have a predictable schedule and  “come and go as they please. sometimes, they come early and leave early.”  Having travelled through a lot of Asia with many empty promises of Monkeys before, I was determined to have plenty of time for the critters to show up. This did however, leave plenty of time for a dip in the onsen.

So. The onsen.

Trips to the onsen are quite popular in these parts with people traveling far and wide and to onsen amusement parks, it seemed that we might at least see what all of the fuss was about.

Coming from an increasingly modest country however, the idea of stripping down with a bunch of strangers made T a bit…nervous. You see, there are several rules to the onsen.

1) Single sex groupings only.

2) To enter the onsen you must first shower and scrub. Scrub well. And as I’ve been told, scrub again once you think you are scrubbed.

3) The towel, it stays with your all of your clothes in the basket in the changing area.

4) A bathing suit counts as clothing.

Needless to say, T wasn’t thrilled as I handed him his robe, told him that no one looks, pointed him in the direction of the men’s baths and trotted in the direction of my promised soak.  Perhaps not the kindest thing to do to the person that you are going to make stand in the snow for hours the following day but neither telling your wife she’s “an adventure.”

Good News – He lived and he liked it.

Bad News – He liked it so much  sat in the extremely hot bath a little to long and came out a bit green.

It’s fair to say though, that if you should ever visit Japan, the onsen is a must try.  Don’t worry no one looks and really, niether should you.

Tomorrow…The Monkeys!  As many of the troop of 200 or so that I could get on camera.