Saturday, November 7, 2009

Best way to spend a Saturday night



After six hours of asking, walking, hunting, I finally re-found sayanoyudokoro, a sento in the Tokyo suburbs. It's about 40 mins from Shinjuku with a couple of train changes, but well worth it. 1000 yen (about $10) gets you access to about 10 different indoor and 6 different outdoor types baths, from small tubs, jet tubs, black water hot springs, to an underground salt and steam stone sauna. I've been here twice now. Never saw another white person. The people who work there are super-friendly but don't speak a hint of a whisper of English, so it takes some time and patience. What I love most is that whole families come here (there's a restaurant attached), and it's such a nice way to spend a Saturday night.



Left and stopped at a nearby park to recoup. People walking their dogs. A wild park cat was stalking the dogs. I called out to the cat, wondering if it would come over to let me pet it. It attacked, leaped onto my lap and went into a deep purring sleep. People walking their dogs laughed with/at/because of me. When I tried to move the cat, it growled in warning. So I sat for an hour petting this feral cat who wouldn't leave the warmth of my lap.

1 comment:

Kellie said...

Looks and sounds like a clean, relaxing and pretty place. But hard to decide which one to try.