11/12 - Yuraku Onsen - 『湯楽温泉』

As evening fell over Osaka, we eagerly anticipated a night of resting our feet and bodies at a local onsen.  N's friend in Hong Kong had visited a little known neighbourhood onsen in Osaka.  The problem was, we weren't entirely sure where this place was.  After a quick Internet search and trying to figure out how to type out the kanji for this place, N found out where it was.  We found out that the place was called Yuraku Onsen [湯楽温泉] and that it was in the southwest of Osaka.

We entered Honmachi [本町] Station on the east end of the station.  The station is actually made up of 3 different subway stations along 3 different lines.  We needed the Yotsubashi [四つ橋] Line, or the Blue Line.  That part of the station, unfortunately, was on the west end of the station.  So we had to walk all the way to that part of the station before actually being able to hop on a train.  We worked hard for our relaxation.

After hopping on the Yotsubashi Line, it was a one-seat ride south to Kitakagaya [北加賀屋] station in the southwest section of Osaka. The station is the second last station on the line, so it was quite a ways out.  Once we stepped out, you could tell that things felt different in this section of town.  Things were a little more open and the buildings shorter.  We had to walk about 10 to 15 minutes to reach the onsen.  Fortunately, just outside of exit 4 was a large map showing the way.

Unfortunately, that was the only picture we took that evening.  We totally forgot to take pictures of the open areas outside of the baths.  One thing you notice about the place when you arrive is that it has, shock, a parking lot.  You would never think to find a large parking lot in Japan, but this is more of the suburbs of Osaka.  However, it was pay parking.  No free lunch here.

Upon entry, we had no idea how to pay.  We went right up to the man and woman at the desk. We just wanted to pay to go in, but they kept pointing to something behind us.  Finally, the lady came out and politely showed us the vending machine where we were to buy tickets for our admission and for extras such as towels.  Vending machines - they really are everywhere in Japan.

As with all sentos and onsens, the bath is divided into two sections.  Yuraku onsen's two sections are divided into the "rock bath" and the "wood bath" (those rough translations based on Kanji).  For this evening, the rock bath was reserved for women and the wood bath was reserved for men.  The men and women would switch bath sides the next evening.  However, for us, this was the only evening we would be here.

So after dutifully paying the vending machine for our entry and towels, we entered our respective sides.  We stripped down and entered the baths to enjoy a evening of relaxation.

In the wood bath section, there was also what looked to be a barber shop included in the changing room.  It looked like men could come here to get the whole bathing and grooming thing done in one shot.  There must have been a button on the vending machine outside to buy a ticket for this service.

Continuing into the baths, the areas were sub-divided further into several smaller baths.  On the inside portion, there were the typical cleaning stations complete with faux wooden buckets, faux wooden stools, shampoo, and conditioner.  After a thorough cleaning, we were free to enter whichever bath we so chose.

I guess some people would feel terribly uncomfortable in the presence of other naked persons of the same sex.  It only ever happens in changing rooms at swimming pools in North America.  In Japan, though, it's quite normal for naked men to commune with each other in the baths.  The same for naked women.

What was a little uncomfortable was there were three young primary school girls running around on the men's side.  They must have been with their father and grandfather from the looks of it.  The girls would keep coming back to one young man and another older man from time to time.  It's very interesting to see how nudity plays out in Japanese culture.

Each side had a special bath, on the rock bath side, there was the Dead Sea bath.  It's filled with salt water and you can literally float effortlessly on the salt water.  On the wood bath side, there was the rubber duck bath.  The bath was in a little dome shaped room with rubber ducks filling a very shallow pool of water.  I suspect that the girls accompanied their father especially for this bath.  However, the bath didn't seem to be popular with the men that night.

What was really fun was trying all the different baths.  You know it could get extremely boring sitting in the same old hot bath for 10 minutes.  So change things up.  Douse yourself with cold water and do it all over again in a different bath.  There were even a couple of large flat screen TVs to keep you occupied if you were really bored of plain, old relaxation.  There was a Japanese game show on the tele that night.

After about a good hour or so I've going from bath to bath.  Our feet had a well deserved treatment.  Poor little feet.  H and N met up outside in the common area and sat on the tatami floor.  Our shoes were all checked in at the front door.  N was reading some Japanese fashion mags while waiting and H grabbed a drink from yet another vending machine.  On our way out, a gentleman had set up a mini fruit stand.  Fruit sounded great after all this eating out, so we bought some oranges and took it back to the guesthouse to munch on. 

After a sento in Kyoto, the grand onsen ryokan in Arima, and Yuraku Onsen in suburban Osaka, we got a pretty broad experience of different bathhouses in Japan.  This was the perfect way to spend our last evening in Japan.