Tuesday 30 April 2013

Yunessun Hot Spring Theme Park

This is a Japan post again.

 I apologize in advance. Its just that when I was researching about Japan, I got so happy and excited when someone posted on their blog information or photos of the places that I want to go.

So this is why I'm doing this. And also to preserve my own memories.

These photos are from Yunessun, a hot springs amusement park and spa resort. Yunessun is in Hakone, about a 20 minutes bus ride from Hakone Yumoto train station. I forgot which line already but its not hard to get there. The bus stops directly at Yunessun so its easy for tourists to go.

Cs and I arrived at 9 am when it opened, on a Tuesday. I wanted to avoid the bus loads of tourists, so we went there early in the morning. It was the best choice. We managed to avoid the crowd.

Copied this from the website: Yunessun is divided into 2 major resort zone. One resort zone is called the Yunesssun Spa Resort, a more public and family oriented place where you are required to wear swimsuits.

The other major resort zone is called Mori No Yu, which is more private and secluded and will allow you the freedom to enjoy a hot spring attraction without a swimsuit.

Cs and I went to Yunessun, the clothed area only. I initially wanted to try Mori No Yu, but since we tried the public bath the day before at the hotel, we decided to go for Yunessun only. Good choice. 


These hot water are for you to splash onto your body first before you go in so your body gets accustomed to the heat first. Me thinks. Hahaha we can't read the Japanese words so I'm just guessing.



Coffee bath smells amazing! Exactly like coffee. Didn't try for obvious reasons.

Btw, you are supposed to shower and clean your body first before going into the bath. Cleaner this way and more considerate for all the other people. If only we do that for swimming pools too. 


You can see the steam rising from the hot spring baths. It was hot! Feels wonderful cos the air is cold (about 12 degrees that morning), and the bath hot. In April, I thought it was cool; I can't imagine being there in winter. 

From the reviews I read, it snows in Hakone. Imagine sitting in the hot baths, with snow falling. Omg..sounds so romantic sial. I wanna try it too. If only I can stand the cold. :) No seriously, sounds awesome eh? I wanna try it. Would be amazing for sure.

After my second time after a hot spring bath, I do still feel sleepy. The body just feels more relaxed, and all I wanna do is sleep. Haha..not as bad as the first time. Thank God.


Red wine bath. I was really looking forward to this one.


If I'm not mistaken, at certain times, they do pour real red wine into the bath, but I'm not sure what time.

 It was about 9:30 am when we were there, so the place was relatively empty. There were a few families there but we had the bath to ourselves most times. It was good! We could take plenty of photos of ourselves! 




This bath smells exactly like green tea too! Would anyone really drink the water?


Sake bath.


Don't know why but this bath felt hotter than the others, so I didn't dare go in yet..





This was the charcoal bath. 



The water was black! 


Love the buildings! The charcoal bath was in that house/hut.



Walking bath basically was just this: walking down this stone path down back.


They provide these shirts to wear over your swimming attire and a small towel. There are hooks provided everywhere, so just leave them there when you go into the baths.


This is the indoor zone. There are more baths here.


I didn't try the slide. Cs did. He said it hurts coming down so I didn't bother going up.



I loved this bath! It has a high salt content like the dead sea. So basically it makes you float! Cs is demonstrating how. Your body feels really light. Love this. 

There were two other Japanese people in there, and the girl kept going sugoii sugoiii sugoii. Hahah funny.


Love this photo cos we look so happy here. Forgot what we were laughing about. Probably one of us were gonna get washed away by the current in the whirlpool, or that we were gonna drop the camera (not funny). Heheh.

Bad enough to drop in the water, but to drop in hot water! We borrowed a waterproof cover from our friend, but yeah still worried lah. I need a waterproof camera!

Btw, notice the wristband on Cs' wrist? That opens our lockers (just scan it), and we use it to purchase food and drinks. I explain more below.

These photos are from the souvenir section. They sell a lot of varieties of food and drinks there! 



All those food looks so tempting. We bought some back to the hotel to sample. I miss the food in Japan most!! Or maybe convenience store. But yeah that relates to food too. 



Red wine in a glass for sale. Took this shot for mum. 


When you go in, they give you a wrist band to wear. It opens your locker (its the key - by scanning), and you buy food with your wrist band too (we bought drinks from the vending machine). After you change and come out, you will see these machines.

Insert your wrist band into the machine and it will total up how much you need (if any) to pay. Awesome eh? So convenient. 

We went to the Italian restaurant (forgot the name) inside the building to eat.


Service was awesome, as usual. I have come to accept this already. The guy serving us was so polite, kept smiling, nodding, and bowing. How do they train their staff?!! I know I know, its their culture. Its still awesome.


Cs had this..some mentaiko egg seafood pasta. Had to try that cos it was a Japan-ized version of pasta. It was good. But we both liked my lasagna better.




My lasagna just looks more appetizing, right? To quote Nora Roberts in Catching Fire: I hate exaggerations, so you know I'm giving it to you straight when I say this is the best lasagna I have ever tasted

No joke! Love this! That warm crusty bread went so well with it! Why didn't we have lasagna with bread? Seems to go as well as bread and butter. Even though I hate butter. Bread and cheese then. 

The sauce is to die for! Dammit making me salivating right now.

Btw, has anyone read Catching Fire by Nora Roberts? I don't really read her books. But, I found this e-book online and started reading cos I was bored. But I loved it! Finished it twice already and I still want to buy the actual book. That's saying something.

Its about the life of some smoke jumpers. Maybe I'm intrigued about their life. Their routine, what they do, and how different it is from our life here. If you're too lazy to click on the link, a smoke jumper is a wild land fighter who parachutes into a remote area to combat wild fires.

From the book, the basically work in the summer months only cos that's when most fires happen. Mostly in mountain areas, but some in Alaska too. It sounds fascinating to me. Makes me want to try to jump out of a plane too. Heh. We're missing out! :)

Back to the meal. This was our dessert.


Cs liked the green tea ice cream, whereas I prefer the pudding. Its more firm in texture than other puddings I've had. I like it. 


Total damage. Y 2,540/RM 79.20.

I thought it was ok, being in Japan after all.

I'll update the rest next time.

Laters.

1 comment:

H A N I said...

thank you for sharing!!! ;)