Arima Hot springs

Sorry I haven't had pictures in a while. I will try to make up for it in coming posts.

I have managed to have some fun adventures.

Tuesday Russell and I bade Phil adieu and then headed into Osaka to spend a day together playing. We went to the Osaka State museum and saw a traveling exhibition of Renoir paintings. So far, we have been pretty lazy about museum crawling, so it was nice to do something different.

Wednesday, Russell got back to work and I went hiking with some friends. The plan was to go hiking and then go swing dancing in the evening. We weren't sure that was a good combination of activities, so we chose an easier hike - we rode the cable car to the top of Mount Rokko and then hiked down to the Hot Spring resort of Arima.

Arima is one of the three most famous Hot Spring Resorts in Japan (from what I hear.) There are well over 10 hot springs and many offer different natural minerals that are naturally occurring. There are two public hot springs and the rest are privately owned. The public hot springs cost about $6 and the private ones are around $15 and up. Considering the hype of this place, the prices seem incredibly cheap to me - but then, public baths and hot springs are plentiful and often only cost a few dollars per visit.

The hike down to the town was gorgeous. We didn't see any sign of civilization until we were practically on top of the town. There were a number of people out hiking, but the trail wasn't crowded. It was really steep, though. Two of my coworkers decided to hike out the way we came in, and my hat is off to them.

Arima itself is a small, outdated town - not the sort of place you go to be wowed by tradition or modernity - but it has a lot of tasty treats and everyone comes for the baths anyway. We went to the Gold Bath - one of the two public baths. It was clean and well appointed and held the large number of visitors easily. There were three baths - they started at 42 degrees Celsius (107.6F) and got hotter from there. Two of the pools were copper colored with natural minerals and the third was filtered to be clear water. It was a bit too toasty for me. I'm something of a heat wimp, it seems. I did manage to sit all the way in the hot spring after much wincing and preparation, but I couldn't stay in too long. Even so, after a thorough scrub and a hot (if fast) dip, I felt really good.

Ready for swing, I road the train back to town and grabbed Russell. He was a very good sport, especially considering he hurt his leg (again) trying to catch the train to Osaka. The lesson was easy for him and he danced with a number of people. He was cranky that he didn't know more steps, though, and very cranky that his leg hurt. I'm hoping we can research moves together during the week and he will keep going.

The day after he danced, though, he couldn't really walk. He was worried, so he went to the hospital. They took all sorts of X-rays and couldn't find any problems. (which is good, right?) so he has been resting and icing his leg. Hopefully he will be willing to try again next week. Finger are crossed.