Tokyo: Cherry blossoms and an Onsen

After a late night of travel, it is nice to sleep in and spend time talking with my friend Sarah to catch up. She has a very interesting life as she is active in the international Tango community. Such fun!

After breakfast, I wandered around her area of Tokyo called Musashino. I walked down streets lined with cherry blossoms. It was beautiful. I love to walk around to get my bearings and identify places to eat (perhaps the most important think to think about) and look at the sights. It is spring so the air is cool but when the sun broke through was a lovely day for a long walk.

There are beautiful parks. Apartment buildings flank this park I found. I love the simple designs of the architecture.

One neighborhood off of a park.

I circled around a park that had spaces for playing baseball which is popular year round here and very big in Japanese culture. I noticed the trees here are numbered to track it’s care and maintenance.

I love birds and listened to them throughout the walk. They really have distinctive calls here which are not like a sing song as they are elsewhere.

I am always fascinated by architecture and this caught my eye. I think this would be a fascinating place to live. Such a skinny building!

A house that alsu caught my eye.

After working up an appetite, Sarah and I went searching for lunch in Kichijoji, one of the 47 Tokyo neighborhoods. We ate at Ootoya.

Everything here is beautifully presented and the Japanese take pride in their work no matter their job. We had fish with vegetables in a vinegar reduction. Salad, rice, soup, and pickled Daikin are the sides. It was very yummy and filling.

I tried dessert as there are jelly cubes I wanted to try. They are not overly sweet and the jelly is very firm and difficult to cut. I noticed them at gift stores. They are popular and sold in rectangles in assorted flavors. This one is matcha green tea and served with ice cream. A molasses type syrup was served with it.

Small alleyways with smaller shops give a glimpse of old Tokyo.

We then headed to Inokashira pond in Inokashira park. It is a popular place to view cherry blossoms. People put out tarps to hold their space for after work parties. Junior workers in companies are often instructed to take the tarp to the park and start there to hold their spot for parties after work. People were having a great time enjoying the day, eating and drinking.

There are swan boats you can rent to paddle with your feet or canoes to row.

Inokashira Benzaiten is a small shrine in the park. It took some time to get through the maze of people who were taking pictures from the bridge. It is also near peak of cherry blossoms so everyone was out!

I saw a great blue heron minding his own business and trying to ignore the crowds!

The shrine has water troughs to clean hands before entering the temple or praying. One of the water features has the water coming from a dragon.

The shrine.

You can pay to write blessings to leave or to receive fortunes. If you do not like a fortune you can tie it here to leave.

A view of the pond from the other side as we were leaving. You can see the bridge and it is packed with people. I love how the trees look like they are covered in snow with so many blossoms.

There are vending machines everywhere for drinks. They have both hot and cold drinks to dispense. Notice the red and blue on the buttons.

We headed to little Korea in Shinjuku. Korean pop music is popular everywhere here.

I was looking for an Onsen. It is a Japanese mineral bath, many which have direct tap to mineral springs. Due to impressive volcanic activity in Japan, there are many hot springs that bubble to the surface. To be an Onsen, the water must contain one of the 19 designated minerals.

The water is believed to have a multitude of healing properties and have minerals believed to be good for circulation, your skin, and your health.

Many Onsen are made from granite, marble, or cypress. An ordinary bathhouse which is not spring fed is called a Senso. The water is warmed up to make a bath. It is for common people and not a luxury like an Onsen. There is still a culture against tattoos. It used to be a sign of belonging to the yakuza or organized crime. There are only a handful of Onsen that will take people with tattoos. This is one of them.

It is divided into men and women. You clean up before entering the baths using shampoo and soap they provide. The baths have different pools which are separated into warm and hot (hot is very hot). Birthday suits only! There are no swimming suits and women of all ages used the same large bath.

There are lockers for shoes when you enter the place and lockers for your clothes when you get ready for the bath.

No pictures of course on the inside and I must confess to being nervous at first but all the women there are for self-care and don’t seem to worry about what others think. We think others are judging but that is usually not true.

Pictures from the outside. The symbol for the Onsen look like steam. It was 450 yen or $4.05 to use the bath for up to 2 hours.