You would NOT believe the place we tried out for Friday night onsen night this past Friday. Really, I have never wanted to bring a camera into a bath more in my entire life. I don't quite know how to describe the place, besides just amazing. We decided it was the equivalent of the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory but in bath land. Willy Wonka bathland: I am sure that is the next book. This place was a crazy adventure from the Mu-pants to the purple bubbles and the gigantic tea bag. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

This entry is dedicated to the lovely ladies of global who were just brave enough to try the Japanese bath experience with me once...back in Korea. I missed you ladies on Friday night!! (and you'll love this story!)

For those of you (most of you besides the aforementioned ladies, I suppose) who have never experienced a Japanese bath, I ought to give you a simple intro. Japanese people really enjoy bathing. Though they are typically seen as a pretty shy bunch of folks, they are very comfortable bathing in public. Well, I suppose it isn't exactly in public there are separate baths for women and men, but still, when you go to an onsen, you could end up hanging around naked with just about anyone.

The first step to bathing (after getting undressed), is to take a shower. You are absolutely never-ever to enter the bath without first scrubbing yourself silly. I have seen little old ladies down on all fours scrubbing so hard that their backside turns bright red. I usually just do my normal routine, but the different thing is that everyone is sitting down. You get a little plastic bucket turned upside down to sit on in front of a shower head attached to a hose (so you can spray where you need to without moving). There is typically a mirror in front of you so you can spot random dirty areas (or something, I have no idea, really) and a shelf with soap.

After you are certain that you are completely clean, you can enter the bath. Depending on where you are, the bath tub�Esize can range from about the same as in a home to as large as a regular swimming pool. They are sometimes square but often round or in pond-like natural blob shapes. They are almost always very hot. Japanese baths are also usually (and I must stress usually due to my experience last Friday) just water or mineral enriched water. They are often spring-fed but also can be just tap water like a pool.

Once you're in the bath, you sit, enjoy, and turn bright red from the heat. It's really wonderful and highly relaxing. Our onsen in Misato has a bath outdoors which was fun in the winter with the snow and steam.

Ok, now that you may or may not have formed a loose picture of my typical bath night (and yes we all do bathe on our own more often then once a week!), let me tell you about the crazy place we tried out on Friday!

We knew from Danielle that it was going to be really interesting, and decided it was going to have to be to live up to the 2000 yen (a bit less then $20) entrance fee (typically about 500 yen/$5 or less). The building was enormous and we were hungry, so we went to browse the restaurant offerings. We settled on spaghetti which we were able to charge to our locker key number and save paying until later. Back to the lockers after dinner, we were offered three different options of the most hideous bath wear. All three of us chose a nutty, yellow, flowered, polyester number, the top of which was like an old housedress, then had mustard colored capri pants to go with. Danielle referred to them endearingly as Mu-pants (as in mu-mu). We wore them long enough to take a couple pictures with our phones and then buried them in the backs of our lockers.

On to the bath! The first stop (after showers, don't forget!) was the purple bath. Yes, purple. Bright purple with bubbles. We never figured out what the scent was, but it was deep, Barney purple. The tub was sectioned off into personal bath tub sized sections for about 6 ladies, with armrests and then the foot end of it open to walk between the sections. The bottom was sloped just perfectly to lean back in the water, with a ice-cold bar running the length of the tub to lean your head/neck on. The three of us soaked for awhile, before I realized I had accidentally forgotten my locker key on my shower seat. I was really disappointed when I returned and it was missing. I mean, how far can someone really go without their locker key once they're in the bath? I really thought they might have just left it for me, but no...I had to walk back out into the locker room and track down an employee to go fetch it from the desk (and yes, I was dripping wet naked for the entire conversation and search).

Back in the bath room, we next ventured to the sauna, which was insanely hot. Thoughtfully though, they built a TV into the wall so I was able to distract myself long enough to stay in the heat for exactly 3 minutes (Jaclyn counted down). Right out the door of the sauna was an ice cold bath, and that's a pretty precise description since there were literally ice cubes floating in it. Jaclyn braved it for less than a minute while I stood next to it and laughed at her.

Next we went outside. There was a lovely pond-shaped bath out there with rocks to rest on. It was in a mini-courtyard and the wind was whipping through creating scary animated steam dragons chasing each other from corner to corner. In addition to the steam dragons, the howling wind, and general darkness...the mood of the courtyard was further Halloween-ized by four bubbling cauldrons! They were wooden kegs for single baths, right out of the past. Even better, the kegs were hooked up to electricity, so when in one you would experience the ultra relaxing sensation of being zapped from all directions. Doesn't sound so relaxing to you? Yeah, me neither I passed on them but Jaclyn plopped into not one, or even just two...but three of the four. She looked a lot like Bugs Bunny in rabbit stew and said they really were nice.

While I soaked outside Danielle & Jaclyn also tried the salt sauna. Having already determined that salt is less then fun during my stay in Hawaii�EI stayed in the bath while they checked it out. They were inside for less then a minute and exited hacking and spitting. Turns out the salt bath is a big cloud of misty salt, that, according to the ladies in the tub with me, is good for your skin. But they also said that D & J didn't stay in long enough for it to be of any good! Too bad...

Next (and I know this is getting long, but it was this amazing!!) we tried a little ledge area next to the pool. You sit on the floor (or like one lady we saw...sprawl on your stomach like a sea lion) and let water cascading down from the ceiling pound on your head, back, shoulders or anywhere else you line up (right, Jaclyn?). It felt incredible, kind of like a massage you could steer.

After our shoulders turned red from the beating of the water, we rolled off the shelf and into the pool. Yes, pool. No chlorine that we could sense, but it even had lines on the floor like a real pool and there was a lady doing the backstroke! We tried out naked synchronized swimming and just generally made a horrible scene laughing hysterically at each other. Never would have thought skinny dipping in a pool could have been so much fun!

Next to the pool were two sidewalk shaped baths with hand rails along the sides. The bottoms were layered with black volcanic rock for a nice foot tenderizing stroll. One was cooler then the other and we tried both.

We wrapped up this grand adventure with two more flavored baths. My favorite was, I kid you not, a tea bath! The water was such a dark brown that you couldn't see past your waist. The best was the pillow-sized tea bag sitting in a little cage in the middle of the bath!! It was so unbelievable! I'm not sure what soaking in tea is supposed to do for your health, but it was totally worth it for the laugh. We then tried the bath next door which was flavored a mysteriously citrus yellow smell/color. It seemed a bit too strong for our tired noses, so after a dip in the Jacuzzi bath (the size of a small pool), we finally wrapped it up with another shower. We were such prunes!!!

I tell you, I have never laughed so hard while getting clean in my entire life. I'm relieved and thrilled to know that after the time I've spent here, Japan is still pulling the rug out from under me and totally taking my breath away. It was a blast of a Friday!!