Day 7: Yuzawa

One week in, halfway through our Japan trip, we'd seen dozens of sights, moved cities every day, and traveled a thousand miles. Ava and I were dead tired. But Ava had a trick planned: we were going to take a day off at an onsen.

From Sendai Station we rode south to Ōmiya and then hopped on a Pokémon Train to Yuzawa.

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A lot of onsen, or hot spring baths, have attached hotels. Some are very small ryokan and have been family run for generations. And some are large, multistory modern luxury hotels. We were staying in one of the latter in Yuzawa.

The hotel usually provides yukata robes for you to wear. There's an art to tying the obi belt that completely eludes me. Before entering the baths you take off your yukata and place it in a basket in the changing room.

Along the edges of the bath there are usually several shower heads, the sort on a long hose that you can pull off the wall, each with a shelf and some soap and shampoo. Before entering the common baths, you clean yourself off first.

At this particular hotel, the baths were huge rooms. One side of the building was open and revealed the artificial waterfall behind the hotel. The mountains were lush and green in the summer; I want to try going when they're covered with snow.

There were baths for lying in, baths for sitting in, super hot baths, cool baths, baths with high-mineral-content water, hinoki tubs, and even tea baths. The different baths are usually separated by gender, and often switched during dinner, so everyone has a chance to experience all of the different kinds.

We basically spent the entire day taking baths. It was wonderful.

Feeling refreshed, we headed to the train station to start the second half of our trip.