WE VISIT YAMAGUCHI CITY

29.12.2024

I’ve started writing today’s blog in a Tully’s coffee shop in Yamaguchi City, the capital of Yamaguchi Prefecture, which is where we live. Thank you to Hiromi and Kohei for the voucher, we are putting it to good use today. Most importantly Mami has asked the staff at Tully’s to have the bare minimum of froth, basically the same as a flat white. I’m very happy with the result.

We kicked off our journey this morning at 9,00am and it was approximately a 45 minute drive to Yamaguchi City. Yamaguchi City is famous for Yuda Onsen, alkaline springs make this onsen famous for beautiful skin as well as recovery from fatigue. We dropped Yoshi off at an onsen (bath house) and he will happily spend the next three hours there. If we told him he could stay there for five hours he’d be even more happy.

The type of bathhouse Yoshi went today is often called Super bathhouse or Onsen Theme park. They consist of a restaurant, manga reading space, kids play area, as well as a number of different pools, usually no bigger than a large inground pool in the backyard of an Australian house. It is an entertainment facility for the whole family.

At this bathhouse, they had 9 types of baths.

Hertz Low-frequency electric currents provide a tingling sensation that helps relieve muscle stiffness. Not recommended for individuals with heart disease, high blood pressure, or other health issues. (On my first trip to Japan, Yoshi asked me to get in this type of pool without telling me what it was. I leapt straight out as I was near where the current generated and it did shock me in both senses of the word. Yoshi loved it. When i understood how to use it was great and I found it very relaxing.)

Abdominal Bath & Foot Punch Target a different area of the body with low-frequency electric currents provide a tingling sensation that helps relieve muscle stiffness.

Hanging Walk This bath offers excellent stretching effects, such as spine elongation. You can hang without strain, thanks to the buoyancy of the water.

Beauty Bath A seated bath with jets targeting the hips and thighs.

Rolling Bath This bath helps relax the muscles in the lower body and promotes relaxation. It’s a reclining bath with potential slimming effects.

Stone Foot Bath Stimulates numerous pressure points on the soles of your feet, promoting recovery from fatigue.

Sauna Promotes blood circulation, fatigue recovery, and skin beautification through sweating. Not recommended for individuals with high blood pressure or health issues.

Cold Water Bath Cold water baths are said to be effective for conditions such as rheumatism, arthritis, autonomic nervous disorders, and menopause symptoms.

While Yoshi was in the bathhouse, enjoying all the above treatments, the three went to YouMe town in Yamaguchi City. It is getting close to the New Year Sales and some shops start early, so we tried our luck. I started looking at the man bags but Mami called me over to where she and Youko were standing in the clothing area. I’d pretty much bought all the clothes I needed, so wasn’t that interested but did as I was told and joined them,

“Look what Youko found”,said Mami and Youko held up a grey sleeveless puffer jacket with a hood!! I have been looking everywhere for this both here and in Australia, after my first such jacket was stolen from my car. It is so good and I’m so stoked I’m wearing it now as I type the blog at home with the heaters on. Magic!! Have a look at my grin in the photos!!

This is not the first time we’ve found what we were looking for near Mami’s hometown, after visiting so many shops in Sapporo, Yokohama, Osaka, and Hiroshima. I am hopeful that I will find my new man bag in Shunan.

As usual, we did the daily grocery shopping in the deli section before we headed back to Yuda Onsen, to dip our feet in the foot spa. Throughout the Yuda Onsen area, there are six public foot baths where you can rest your weary legs for free. We eagerly took socks off and dipped our feet in. ‘Atsui’ ‘Attsu’ ‘Atsu—–iiiiii’ It was so hot it almost scalded our feet. I have never been in an onsen or foot bath that hot. I felt good walking back to the car, but really did not enjoy the extreme heat of the water.

After another wonderful dinner cooked by Youko, Rob felt like ice-cream but we had run out. Japan does not have big tubs of ice-cream like we do but they have a wide variety of single wrapped ice-creams and dixie cups. As soon as Mami said we were going out to buy ice-cream, Yoshi and Youko were initially surprised that anyone would do this at 8.30pm. However they soon got over that and started putting in their orders. In the end we bought 13 ice-creams, six of which were Rob’s nightly dixiecup icecreams, three were Mamis, three were Youko’s and Yoshi was satisfied with one.
We ate our ice creams as we played Rummy-O. Mami won Rummy-O, Yoshi second, Youko third and me last. I think I may have been distracted by the amount of ice cream surrounding me ….. or just hopeless at Rummy-O.