Tokyo Day 2, Get Out of Town

Step Five: Go on your big nap-skipping Day trip early in the vacation. We went to the village of Hakone, located about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo. The area is known for it's hot springs and has an antiquated resort type area. It was no easy task finding our way there.Navigating the subway and the commuter trains was complicated, but no more or less so than any other subway with larger trains leaving the central metropolis to further reaching towns. To get to Hakone, we took one subway train and then the bullet train! It was really really fast. Then we hopped on one or two more trains and a bus up a windy hill. Getting to the destination is part of the fun. Step Six: Breakfast is not a sit-down meal.
We ate breakfast on the run, stocking up the night before at grocery stores or 711 type shops. Guess what things are by their pictures and hope for the best. Later on I discovered that this was totally gauche and embarrassing by Japanese standards. We were the only ones eating outside buildings. Apparently, we were tacky and inappropriate Americans. Oh, and the picture above is what I thought was a ball of rice. Surprise, it had some creepy fishy thing inside. I passed it to Mimi, she devoured it. I tell you, that child will eat anything.

Step Seven: Go where the locals go for fun.
We were guided by my trusty local friend to Yunessun, a family oriented hot springs swimming extravaganza. We're a big water family. This suited us fine, except for the suits. I had to wear A ONE PIECE and Dx had to wear a shirt because of our tattoos (no, not matching.) You'll notice a lack of pictures of me in this section.

Women were given these silly suit cover-ups, men wore matching blue ones. This was the indoor section. We (ok, I) was the only white person there. The pools were all warm and there were, say, 30 of them and they were all different. Kiddie pools, cave pools, outside water slides. And then the piece de resistance: the mountain valley of outdoor fantastic (anti WofW) pools. Starting with:

The coffee pool, made, smells and tastes (what? Of course I tasted them!) just like coffee. It's a bit disconcerting swimming in a big brown warm bubbly pool, but it smelled divine. Further up the hill was this lovely typical Japanese bath, complete with cherry blossoms and floating reed thingys. Jude found them delicious.

Here's Mimi climbing into the Green Tea pool. (Also delicious).

And here is the Crvn family bathing in a bacchanalian Red Wine pool. We didn't drink this one.

There was also a honey pool, other types of tea, a sake pool, a charcoal pool and a number of others. The only thing missing was the chocolate pool. Yunessun was unlike anywhere I've been in America or elsewhere (the Gellert Baths in Budapest included. If you've been there, you know.)

Step Eight: Try everything.

At Yunessun they offered the legendary fish pedicure. You put your feet in a pool and fish nibble off bacteria and dead skin. Sounds horrible, yes? We totally did it. Watch:

I am the one shrieking.