Ashiyu - An onsen, but for foot!

If you're coming from a country where onsen, or hot springs, are not well known, then you might be interested on going to one, especially to Japanese onsen. But the thing is, in most Japanese onsen you have to take all of your clothes off. Just like me, maybe there are some of you who are too embarrassed to do that and just gave up.
But guess what? We went to a place called 足湯 Ashiyu, basically an onsen too, but you can only dip your foot into it!

The water's height is 15cm, just right for foot

Most of Ashiyu are free to be entered, but if you do not bring towels, some places might provide towel rental! If you come to Japan, and ever found these Ashiyu, I recommend you to try to go in!

Ocha

Ashiyu, Onsen for Foot.

Hello Everybody,

Today I went to an Ashiyu place near Kasugaicho Station in Fuefuki City. If you don't know what is "Ashiyu", I'll try to explain what it is. Ashiyu, in Japanese derived from 2 kanji characters, 足 (ashi) means foot, and 湯 (yu) means hot water. In literal means, maybe it means hot water for foot. In other words, Ashiyu is foot soaking activity with hot spring water. The differences with Onsen is, Onsen is full body soaking and you have to be naked.

I'm sorry if you're disgusted with my foot. But this is Ashiyu.

Ashiyu near Kasugaicho Station, you can relaxing while see the train passing by.

There's so many places where you can do Ashiyu in Yamanashi Prefecture. So if you come here, try this kind of experiences. Let's visit and discover Yamanashi!

Pepi.

Mitamanoyu - We went to an onsen!

Today, we visited Mitamanoyu みたまの湯 for some observing. Mitamanoyu is one of the famous onsen (hot spring) in Yamanashi Prefecture. It's my first time to visit a real onsen, and it really became quite an interesting experience.

They got their own bus stop! How convenient!

Although we did not really dip into the bath, we actually entered the bath area to get the feeling of how onsen really is. Mitamanoyu not only have indoor baths (内風呂 uchiburo), but they also serve the open-air bath (露天風呂 rotenburo) style.

indoor - uchiburo

open-air - rotenburo

There are also a lot of lockers that you can use to put your belongings in the dressing room. They are \100 coin-lockers, so you have to make sure to have some \100 coins in your pocket or you cannot get the key out!
If I use the locker, then I have to spend \100? 
No!
Actually, the \100 is just like for some kind of insurance, so that one can not take the keys as they please. So don't worry, once you open your locker again, your \100 would roll out again!
As you can see in the right picture, there are some sinks and mirrors provided in the dressing room, and also hair dryers. I do not know if all onsen also provide them or not because it's my first time visiting one, but if all of them really do so... how thoughtful TT


Mitamanoyu also provides restaurant and resting room. So if you want to get some rest from the bath but are planning to go in again later, you can use these places to kill time. It's free to go in and out of the bath!

Resting room

You could also visit their website (JPN/EN) for more information!

Ocha

Mitama no Yu

Today, I went to the Mitama Hot Spring (Japanese: Mitama no Yu, みたまの湯) located in Ichikawa Misato town, Yamanashi Prefecture. Admission price for adult is 770 yen, and kids 550 yen. Mitama Hot Spring's operation hour start from 10 AM-11PM. Even the closing hour is 11PM, person who come over 10:30PM can't get inside the Hot Spring. If you came here, you'll got so much amenities, such as hairdryer, body soap, shampoo, etc. And you can rent a towel too.

From this Hot Spring, you can see the Kofu Basin nightview while you're bathing in the onsen. In this Hot Spring, the Hot Spring splitted in 2, the first one is Tonogata 殿方 with blue color curtain, means the Hot Spring room for man, and the other is Fujin 婦人 with red color curtain, means woman's Hot Spring room. So if you're planned to visit, don't enter the wrong onsen room.

In this Hot Spring, there are a little shop, sells some Yamanashi Prefecture's confectionary. You can buy Yamanashi's souvenir here, such as Minobu Manju, etc. Also, there are so many Vending Machine which sells beverages and ice cream. Furthermore, when i walk around the Hot Spring Lobby, there are some Healthy Devices. The Healty Devices is consist of Hand Massage, Blood Pressure Checker, etc.

 

Thanks for reading
Pepi.

First shrine visit a.k.a. Hatsumoude!

If you have been watching anime or Japanese drama from time to time, you might have come across a scene where the characters visit a shrine in the middle of the night to wait for New Year's. That, is one way to do Hatsumoude. Hatsumoude actually means "visiting shrine for the first time in a year" and people usually go on January 1st, 2nd, or 3rd, so it does not necessarily have to be done at the previous year's last day's midnight. So don't worry, you could still do your Hatsumoude even if you choose to watch Kouhaku Uta Gassen while hiding under kotatsu.

I went to Sengen-Jinja (浅間神社) in Fujiyoshida City for my first ever Hatsumoude in my life. Just for the memories, I bought an omikuji and an amulet that is said can boost your academics up. FYI, my omikuji was 末吉 which means I won't be having a really good year, it seems.

Ocha

Kofun, The Ancient Graves.

     

What is this?

    Today we went to Kofun, literally means "Ancient Graves" in Japanese. It located in Minami Kofu, Yamanashi Prefecture. The place is right on the foothill. Actually i don't know precisely about the name of the hill, but the certain fact is it located in South Kofu. If the Takeda Shrine is located in North Kofu, so this time i went to South Kofu. The Kofun could be reached in 30 minutes by car from Takeda Shrine.

Looks like a keyhole if we see it from the above.

       When I just arrived to the place, i don't saw that place as my thought about grave. It was really like a common park, but who knows that common park-ish place has a history value? When i started to walk, I saw so many sign that we may found it in the park. But, there are something's unusual. What is it? 

You see the mound that looks like the Windows XP wallpaper? That's the thing that we talked about.

       There are so many mound-shaped graves which the size of the grave is differentiate the social rank of the person who has been buried there. Even there are so many mound that confirmed as grave, but some mound just contained the dead's treasures. You mind to steal it? Wait a minute. What ancient people's called as treasures are kinda different like what you think treasures are. It may be just contain things like mirror. Because in the past, around 1700 years ago, mirror is expensive and being the luxury symbol for the people in that age. There maybe contain Japanese Sword too. But, the sword has no weapon purpose. The sword just became a social rank symbol because in that age, the Sengoku Jidai still didn't happen. Furthermore, the Kai Province (now Yamanashi Prefecture) is surrounded by the mountains. So, that Kai Province gets attacked probability is low. 

Thanks for reading.

Pepi.

Yamanashi's Kofun - Japanese Massive Tombs

Today, I was given a chance to visit one of the Kofun that can be found in Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture. Kofun is Japanese ancient tomb-- and it's really, really big! I heard the more important you are, the bigger your kofun will be!

Taken at Choushi-dzuka Kofun's Top

I visited two kofun, Choushi-dzuka Kofun (銚子塚古墳) and Maruyama-dzuka Kofun (丸山塚古墳). Choushi-dzuka Kofun is shaped exactly like those ancient door keyholes, the one that is like a combination of circle and trapezoidal, if you look at it from above. The circle one is said to be the person's grave, and the trapezoidal one was for that person's valuable belongings.

Maruyama-dzuka Kofun was a little smaller than the previous one. Its shape is circle, and is supposed to be a person's grave. As it is the second biggest out of all the kofun here, the person who was buried here might be the second most powerful person in Yamanashi at the time.

Climbing the Kofun

Funny thing is, even though they were supposed to be people's graves, the person who first found these kofun said they checked inside, and found no body nor the remnants of it! But, as written above, there really were valuable things found in the Choushi-dzuka Kofun's trapezoidal part! No one could tell what happened to the body!

These kofun are located near mountains, so I think it will still be refreshing even in summer. I do not know if picnic is allowed or not here, but if it is, that would be awesome! Taking a walk here is also not a bad idea, because as the kofun is quite tall, you could see a part of Kofu City from above!

- Ocha